ashes of devotion
by spiritodellagobianco
Summary: Aiolia/Shaina/Seiya. Two men have seen her face without mask. Only two men can have her, so. But this is a threesome, and this is a fight. And who will she love, at the end? OOC sad, romantic, a little bit erotic... be kind with my english, I' m italian..
1. Chapter 1

Ashes of Devotion.

1. Two faced woman.

She was a two faced woman, and for this two men had seen her face.

In that long, sad night, Aiolia woke up and look out, in the starry sky so distant from him.

So quiet the Fifth House was.

So cold.

He was naked, and the frail breeze kissed his skin with the tender touch of a blossom.

He inspired, and looked down, in the quiet silent Astu.

The city was lying ahead, sleeping indifferent.

He closed his eyes and interwined his cosmos with the Pulse of the Universe.

He was searching for something so close, so lithe, he doubted to find it out.

In silence, listening to every breath of the Earth, finally he found a gentle, loud cosmos answering him unconsciously.

' Shaina', he breathed, calmly, ' now you are sleeping troubled dreams. Don' t suffer. Be closed to me. My arm is here for you.'

She was two faced woman, so two men had seen her beautiful, refined face of fiery Priestess and of extremely feminine woman.

Two men were involved in the possibility to love her.

Two men were rivals for her.

But only one would achieved her mysterious, frail heart.

Aiolia was ready to fight another time with Seiya. 


	2. Chapter 2 misleading herself

2. Misleading herself.

Misleading herself, occulting herself: the only way to become knight, the only way to survive in a world ruled by men, the only way of not being hurt.  
She had spent her youthful in a strange sort of frauds, treacheries and mistification, covered and protected only by her mask.

She was only a child, held by the High Priestess' beloved arms.

' In this world, Shaina, nobody wants to see your true face. Men don' t want to discover how deep a woman is. You have got a beautiful face, they only will see this, your beauty. They only want to see in a woman what gives pleasure to them. You have two choices, now: become a knight for yourself, an amazon, and be free, or a courtisan. A concubine of a knight. Make your choice, little: remember that there' s no difference. Wearing a mask made by foundation, or made by iron, it' s the same, it' s always a mask. This is the destiny of all women, wearing a mask their whole life. Society wants this.'

The High Priestess who made her Priestess gave her advices, good advices, sad advices.  
Little pains of truth for a little broken- hearted- girl who needs truth.  
So she trusted her, because she felt the High Priestess was right, and was sincerely fond of her, she wasn' t saying all of this stuff to shock her.

And from that moment, whatever the choice of Shaina would have been, she began to wear a mask, and to cover her inner feelings, her thoughts, sure that her voice was superflous and nobody interested in listening to.

And she was right.

But that evening, months ago, a man broke her mask.

Damned Seiya.

' Hey, how nice are you, beautiful pretty face.'

He was strangely relieved in finding in her a so much amazing, hautingly handsome look; in the meanwhile she was shocked by the revelation of her naked face, her naked soul.

And Seiya' s words only confirmed the High Priestess' words.

' They only look at your exterior aspect.'

And in fact, he was looking at her saying she was pretty.

He had just done the most terrible damage to her triumphant spirit, but he was totally unconscious, that berserk man.

Marin had grown him, fed him, for destroying her, her self confidence, her life among knights, her honour, her freedom.

Noone among saints would have respected her anymore.

Infact, after the news ran around, they all spoke to her in a different way.

Some of them were strangely subliminals, as they were trying to wooing her.

Shaina remembered too well the words pronunced by the High Priestess at her ordination:

' With this mask, you' ll achieve the status of a free woman. If a man see your face, you will loose this status, and become a concubine, a slave, of that man. Otherwise, if you don' t want to follow this destiny, you must kill him and take back your muddy honour.'

From then on, Shaina had only a thought: kill Seiya. She couldn' t love him. She was too conscious he wasn' t in love with her.

' Damned Saori Kido...'

Drying tears from that beautiful face which only mirrors had seen before that disgraced night, she thought at the woman who had stolen from her the only possibility to love in her life, who had stolen from her the man who had conquested her heart.

So she had no choices, she had to go to New Luxor. If he can' t be mine, he won' t be another woman' s man. I prefer to see him dead, she thought.

But then, in New Luxor an accident happened.  
Shaina' s thoughts went to Marin.

' It seems that all the people related to you, Marin, are assigned to bring devastation to my days in this Earth...'

Aiolia was there to kill Seiya too, and he too saw Shaina' s face.

Even more: he brought back her in Greece, all the travel spent in his arms, won by him too, and without mask.

She tried to protect Seiya from Aiolia, but how manage an atomic shot like the Lightning Bolt?

And he put her at death' s door, and then he restored her frail life, with a so warm cosmos, entering her veins, her breath, her soul, in the same way an Omnipotent God would have done.

So much terrifying power, able to give life, or to take off life.

Seiya was a berserk, and Aiolia was worst, a demon.

Two men, now.

Laws were clear: only one man you could love. The others must die.

But in what way could she kill a Gold Saint?

Two men. Too mess.

Time to kill them. Time to die for.


	3. Chapter 3 fil rouge

3. Fil rouge.

It was a soft chain, resistant enough to grant him against dispersion.

Aiolia knew this sort of links.

When Seiya had broken the mask, he had created a link between him and Shaina, the link of the law, and maybe the link of a love' s promise.

So, his own link had to be more stronger than Seiya' s.

Aiolia' s steps in the vastity of Fifth House echoed solemly.  
He returned lying in his bed after a last glance at the Astu.

In his kingdom, he was a king, a real one. A Lion, nor a Pegasus.

A Master, a ruler.

' You don' t think, Seiya, but she' s more mine than yours. This is the principle of possession. There' s no love without possession, and my chain on her is much stronger than yours, Seiya. My chain on her is like a jewel I gifted her.'

Refresh life in her beautiful cheeks, this was the deal.

From then on, some high energy particles plasmed by his powerful cosmos were surviving in Shaina, creating a deep bridge Shaina wasn' t suspected yet.

This was the chain Aiolia was sure of.

' Seiya, you can do whatever you want, I have power on her now. My blood is in her. This is the fil rouge, the reason her cosmos answers me if I call, even if she isn' t aware.'

Aiolia wasn' t sure Seiya wasn' t correspond Shaina at all.

Surely he was much more interested in Saori, but Shaina had a mysterious hint of mystique, the perfum of an exotic desert rose, and Aiolia knew Seiya wasn' t indifferent to delicacy and poetry in the world: he was crying when the Lightning Bolt shot Shaina, and he was ready to die for having vengeance on him in loving memory of her.

Seiya punched him in the face not as a knight would have done for fighting, but as a boy would have done for his girlfriend.

And his fist was weak, full of pain for her.

' Do you feel better now, boy?' Aiolia asked then, tasting the flavour of his own blood on his mouth.  
He deliberately had permitted Seiya to hurt him.  
He did a mistake, in not seeing Shaina making shield with her slim body to Seiya and embrace him to feel the warmless of the stars in him.  
In that moment, Aiolia had envied Seiya, and in spite of his superstatus of Gold Saint, vigourous and dreaded warrior, he felt lonely.  
He remembered well Shaina and Seiya' s full- of- fear- eyes when he was appeared among trees all covered in his gold armour, a puissant presence in front of which even the bravest remained without words.  
He put people in awe, he was respected, but he was lonely, definetely lonely.  
Poorer than Seiya. Miserable.

He breathed. Thirteen years of exile.

' None can know how long is this waiting. Waiting for some beauty in life. For something true. You have the love of such a woman. You are the luckiest man in this world, Seiya. But you can' t appreciate it properly. You are only a child. So I' ll take her away from you. She will forget you. I' ll swear on my honour of Saint, my honour of man.'

This was the trial he had intention to test.


	4. Chapter 4 embraced by gold

4. Embraced by Gold.

The High Temple was spilling warm, soft incense.

The delicacy of a somptuous perfum brought Shaina in another world.

It was a celebration day.

The High Priest was offering Athena' s statue the most luxuriant gifts for another year of prosperity.

Someone said Arles was a sinister presence at the Temple, but in organizing celebrations, no one surpassed him.

Shaina, next to Asterion and Eris, wonders herself where a so rich fragrance could be bought when, among the frail fogg of the incense, the doors opened and the Gold Saints made for last their entrance.

All the knights looked at them and admired the elegance of the Great Mu, the physical strongness of Aldebaran, then they noticed the sempiternal missing of Gemini and the superb glance full of perversion of Death Mask.

Then, the fiery Lion came, a muscular sculpture of athletic perfection, before Virgo and the others well lined up.

He was more slower in walking than Death Mask, as advancing in the Temple, he who was the brother of a traitor, was a weight he had to stand with an enormous amount of dignity and self control.

Then, at her high, he turned his icy- shining glance and looked at her in a silence full of complicity.  
His green eyes were tantalizing; she felt dominated and had to lower her own sight.

He was seeing through her mask, through her. He was undressing her in a certain manner, as only a lover could do.

Suddenly, Shaina felt her forces going down, overwhelmed by a strange sort of languourous feeling. Her knees began to shake.

And a voice, a deep voice, gentle but majestic, took shape in her head.

' Yes. You' ll fall on your knees, don' t worry. It' s time to blow jobs. Fear of me, Shaina? Be mine. I' ll be kind.'

' Wha...'

Shaina roused herself by that strange sort of hypnotizing sense.  
She had heard strange stories about Gold Saints, that some of them could have power on one' s mind, but she wasn' t sure at all, she was only a Silver Saint and far from the misteries of the highest grades of warriors.

Aiolia wasn' t looking at her anymore, he was lined in front of the sacrifice the High Priest was making on the fire.

Two doves were released flying high in honour of the Goddess Athena.

While Shaina was looking at those doves, envying their freedom, a hot, predominant cosmos not unknown to her experience embraced her tenderly, murmuring promises of peace and protection.

A hot breath near her ear gave her cold shivers of forbidden pleasure.

She felt the desire to fall asleep in those biceps.

Something warm, a lithe spot, from her soul arrived at her body, between her long slender legs, and she felt shame for a strange inner excitement never happened before.

She sit down on the marm bench and closed tight her eyes and her knees.

' You can' t humiliating me so much only because you have seen my face...' she thought trembling, hating the Master of the Fifth House with all her forces.

Asterion near her put a hand on her shoulder and she jolted violently.

' You okay, Shaina?'

' Yes... yes, of course.', she murmured, and she began nurturing resentment against her weakness. Against her femininity. Against the privilege to have been embraced by Gold.


	5. Chapter 5 belonging to sisters

5. Belonging to Sisters.

No man put a step in the Sorority Temple.  
The Sisterhood didn't permit.

It was a tradition, it was a law, it was a secret among women, since the Night of Times.

Even the High Priest coudn' t manage this.

The Sorority was also known as a non- place where misteries were made.

Not only fights, but especially filters, divination, perfums for the city, potions with herbs to cure and solve health problems. They were also midwives.

The most superstitious and cowards among men called the girl of the Feminine House with the frightening nickname of ' witches'; others, boorishes with ' grossier gout', called them ' horgiastic lesbians of the Tiasus', and invented spicy stories about the evenings in the Temple, surronding also by poets who, in smoky taverns, sang the loneliness of the long, silent winter nights; the respectul ones, instead, called them as ' sorceresses', ' daughters of Circe and Medeia', ' daughters of Pentesilea', or simply ' priestesses of knowledge and freedom, owned by themselves.'

The Sorority Temple, with all the Amazons' statues lined up in the cloyster, and Cariatis in the pronaus, was the first house Shaina remembered from her childness.

Now, she felt untidy to enter the Temple, even if no girl knew her double shame.

Among sisters, there was a strange sort of modesty in talking about love.

It was the most vulnerable side of a woman.

She looked at the young kids, all little virgins who one day would have taken the ordinations and made the Triple Promise: Be Free, Be Honoured, Be Chast.

She wasn' t free at all anymore. She wasn' t honoured anymore. And her chastity was in discussion, fluttering on a cobweb which hung out on a dark Abyss.

All of this made her unappropriate to enter the Amazons' gardens.

All the Sisters were having spare time.

A brief ' Peace to you' exchanged with Nemes; a fast rancorous sight shot to Marin in the air distance.

' All that comes from you is a damage for me, Marin...' Shaina murmured, but suddenly a little girl with a beautiful white kitten attracted her attention.

' Shaina, Shaina, take me on!' the little cried, all life and belovably milk perfum on her hair.

' How nice kitten you have...', Shaina said, crouching her tall thin body to reach for Lora' s child heigh.

' This is mine. I found it all alone, abandoned, near the Great Temple, and the High Priestess gave me the permission to keep him. But my sister wants to steal him from me...' the kid said, making a little funny face of disdain.

' So you keep him strongly enough not to be robbed.'

Lora smiled gently, and Shaina felt her heart opening.

That was the most soughtful age, an age with no mask, no obligations, but only spontaneously- born gestures.

How tender would have been to have a daughter like her.

A daughter with glittering baby- brown eyes, like Seiya's, thought with sad sweetness Shaina.  
A daughter with penetrating baby- green eyes, like Aiolia' s. Now Shaina felt the echo of a thunder in her heart.

No. Not at all. For none of them both.  
They both were born to make her life a mess, this was their mutual mission.

' So I see, Lora. Be careful of your kitten. He seems really vivacious.'

' Lora, stop pestering all the Priestesses!'

A generously fatty average woman, with nice smile on a open face, came resolutely to take little Lora from Shaina. A colf of the high ranks, not obliged to wear the mask, devoted to the Sisterhood for her entire life.

Where's my devotion? Finished in ashes, thought Shaina with a touch of bitterness in herself.

She envied the visible serenity of the woman.

' Ah, Dimitra', Shaina greeted her, ' Lora was only showing me her little new friend. Is it possible to have a meeting with the High Priestess?'

' She' s busy now with the novices... but I think Shaina if you wait for her in the garden or whatever you want, she will reach you as soon as possible, but not before two hours. The next week we have seven ordinations, seven! And the Great Arles wasn' t yet informed.'

' Allright, I wait for the Reverend Mother, so.'

' Be at your ease, Sister.'

Dimitra took Lora' s little hand and slipped into the thermal section.

Shaina looked behind them.

Two hours.

' Okay, let's be comfortable, so.'

She reached also the thermal vasser for having relax- time.

A moment for herself. A moment for putting down the mask.


	6. Chapter 6 strange woman

6. Strange woman.

Hyoga entered the room he shared with Seiya and Shun at the seaport.  
They were listening music.

' Right Here, Right Now, Right Here, Right Now...'

The sound came down in the street. Hyoga put a hand in his blond hair.

' Hey boys, you can keep it louder, y' know? That' s a real hell...'

Seiya smiled and threw him the teddy bear Miko' s gifted him when he was in hospital.

' Hyoga, don' t do the Ol' Mother-in- Law. We are just having our time.'

Shun smiled too, seen Hyoga putting down the shopping bag.

' Hey, throw me an orange, I' m hungry and here nobody wants to cook!' Seiya lamented.

' Have you heard, Shun? He' s okay, now. Attacked first by Shaina, then by Aiolia, but he' s more healtier than you and me!' said Hyoga, throwing at Seiya the orange.

' Completely.', said coolly Shun, looking with indulgence at Seiya.

Seiya began to peel the orange and suddenly he became serious.

Strange feeling, he thought.

Rose without warning.

Shaina.

What a dreadful girl.  
First, she tried to kill him.  
He suspected she wasn' t able to stand him because he had won the Pegasus Clothes at Cassios' place.  
Then, she protected him against a Gold Saint because she said she loved him.  
Now, she was disappeared. Seiya hoped she was well.

Too complex for him. Seiya didn' t understand women with such a mutable personality. He was at his ease with girl as Miko, simple next door' s girls with no homicide thoughts in their mind and no diva' s filthy attitudes in their feelings.  
And he was interested in feminine, sophisticated girl like Saori, a little bit cold.

Shaina was too eccentric, too passionate, too aggressive, too emotive, to frail, and suddenly too crazy, too Star in some way, and she scared him.

Shaina.  
Too beautiful to die.  
Too wild to live.

' Girl, I swear you are mad...' Seiya yawned, cracking his knuckles.

Or maybe Shaina wasn' t a girl anymore.  
Maybe she was a woman, and women are more difficult to manage.

' Hey, what are you dreaming of ?'

' Eh? Oh, sorry, Shun... d' ya need me?'

' Hyoga request full cooperation in the kitchen. Who doesn' t cooperate, doesn' t eat.'

' Okay...'

Seiya stood up, following Shun.

That strange feeling didn't abandon him at all.

So Diva.

Far from New Luxor, someone stood up too, listening to a quizzled cosmos.

' Don' t make this effort, Seiya. You can' t understand her.'

The Fifth House in the late afternoon was invased by the ardour of the Sun, Leo' s Planet.  
It seemed that a strain of light heat was pouring among columns with the puissance of an ejaculation.


	7. Chapter 7 my body, my soul

7. My body. My soul.

Warm water wasn' t able to chase away that torpor which took her deep essence.  
Sweet hands massaging her, the finest oils on her silky skin, the narcissistic reflect of the distract mirrors...

... Am I so beautiful as Seiya said?

... Am I so desirable as Aiolia showed?

Shaina closed her eyes.

She missed a comfort, but she wasn' t able to say what comfort.

The starry- warm cosmos of Seiya?

The gold- puissant cosmos of Aiolia?

' I don' t know if it' s proper she becomes a Silver knight. She is such a particular woman.', once had said the High Priest Arles to the High Priestess, just some days before her ordination.

' She is misfortunate. Her Fate is misfortunate. Her beauty brings her pain, and drama.', had answered the High Priestess, ' But she is faithful to the Sisterhood. She will be a brave knight, for Athena' s sake.'

And so did Shaina.

Sun was dying, leaving place to crepuscular fevers.  
The perfect hour, the most adored by lovers.

Oh, kisses.  
Oh, caresses.  
She pushed upward her perfectly shaped breasts.

' Seiya...' she breathed, and evoked Seiya' s face.

And she didn't find it. Not completely.

At first, it looked like Seiya. Dark brown hair, long well- shaped muscles.  
The tender touch of the bronze.

Then, a man, more taller than Seiya, appeared. Light brown hair, squared shoulders.  
The fiery embrace of the gold.

With irritation, she took the linen sheet to cover her body. For not seeing her moaning soul.

' Shaina.'

'Oh, Reverend Mother...'

Shaina stood up, sorrowful.

' No, no. Don' t leave.'

' I' ve lost the sense of time, Reverend Mother...'

' It' s the same. I' m here to relax too. So, drink with me some flower infusion, and tell me how you are.'

Two servants arrived, bringing two cups of a perfumed blue mélange.  
Reverend Mother never changed, always that wise, fine face only the Amazons could see without mask.

' I' ve done a great mistake, Mother. I' ve been beated, and my face was discovered.'

Reverend Mother took her cup.

' I don' t see the problem. You know the Law. Kill him or be his.'

' This is not so simple, Mother.'

' Is he a knight?'

' Yes. A Bronze Saint.'

' No problem. You are of Silver Category.'

' Yes...'

' D' ya love him?'

Something in Shaina hurt.

' Yes!' she groaned, putting her hands around the hot cup, feeling her thin fingers burning.

' So, marry him. Or is he already married?'

' No... no...'

Shaina looked low, a sadness in her soft green eyes.

' What' the matter, so?'

' There' s another man, too, who has seen my face.'

A little pause didn' t affect Reverend Mother coolness.

' One of them must die. If you don' t love the second, kill him. Law is simple, in saecula saeculorum. This is the way you can save your devotion to the Sisterhood.'

' The second... the second, Reverend Mother... is a Gold Saint.'

Now, it wasn' t only a common pause.

The silence fell down with the weight of a rock.

' A Gold one.', said finally the Reverend Mother, spelling out the words with contained angryness.

' Yes...'

Shaina felt herself shameful and weak.

' And for God' s sake, can I know for what disgraced reason you have ingaged battle with a Gold Saint??? Who' s him?'

Reverend Mother was screaming now, her long white hands trembling of emotivity.

' Shaina, my greatest satisfaction, and my greatest delusion!!!'

' It was a mistake, Mother...' complained Shaina frantically, ' I didn' t want to have a fight with him... I was fighting with the Bronze one... then he arrived... and it happened... he' s Leo' s Saint...'

' My God!'

Reverend Mother put her cup down, inspired violently as she hadn't deserved any breath in herself, any oxygen in the air.

' Sagitter' s brother! The blood of a traitor!!'

Reverend Mother spitted out the phrase ' the blood of a traitor' with an enormous amount of difficult and pain. Then, she louded her voice in an intense murmur.

' Just the fact you are not anymore free is a real unfortunate event... just the fact a man could advance rights on you is a mere accident for the reputation of our beloved Sorority... but the worst thing is... that one of my girls is owned by such a man... a traitor' s brother!' she spilled out again angrily.

Shaina felt more guiltier, if it was possible, grounded down.  
Reverend Mother took an instant to return in control.

' Daughter, do you love him?' she asked, similar more to an inquisitor than a priestess of indulgence.

' No!'

Shaina revolted, becoming trembling in herself.

' And has he advanced any pretension on you...?'

' No... not anymore... but he has showed...'

' Showed what?'

Reverend Mother took Shaina' s chin to look her in the eyes, ' Not lie to me, Shaina. Has he advanced any right on your body?'

' He has showed to want to.'

Reverend Mother left her face, and sighed heavily.

' We must be concrete, Shaina. A Gold Saint is a too much high target for you to kill, especially the Saint of the Fifth House. Kill the Bronze one.'

' And be Aiolia' s...?' Shaina shouted in danger.

' What d' you think to do, girl? Are you able to kill a Gold Saint??? I don' t guess! And if he advances demand to the High Priest to take you, we don' t want to have problem with the High Temple! We want to mantain our privileges, but there' s a price to pay when infractions to reglements are done. You must sacrifice yourself for the sake of the Order.'

Reverend Mother sat down, arms tightly folded, angryness in her eyes.

' But my honour! My freedom...'

' He has seen your face and, clearly, he has also beaten you!'

Shaina felt her blood going away.

' Have I to become a concubine... a slave...' she swallowed, ' ... of a man I don' t love...?'

' Have you got a better solution?'

' I' ll try to...'

' Try what??? Don' t be silly. And don' t drive me crazy. You won' t be able to shoot neither a knock that he has just given you the kiss of death. He rocks at the speed of Light, d' you know or not?? You' ll be kissed and killed in a fraction of second. Fucked off. That' it. Wonderful enemy, wonderful lover.'

' But I love Seiya...' Shaina stopped the sudden tears which were rising.

' Shaina. Stay on Earth. You know the Law. I don' t want you to be killed.'

Reverend Mother stood up ad prepared herself to leave.

' Don' t forget your obedience and devotion to our Sorority. Kill the Bronze one. It' s better for all.'

She left without any other word, and Shaina remained alone in the darkness.

Night was falling down on the city, on the world, on her.


	8. Chapter 8 making the difference

  
8. Making the difference.

She knew some girls had had her same Destiny. Save your honour, or save the honour of the Sisterhood.

Entering her little home, she felt astonished, like she was barely alive, but not in Earth.

She looked at herself into the mirror. Then, she put down the mask.

And she discovered tears.

' I can' t kill you, Seiya...'  
She began crying loud. ' I don' t want, don' t want, don' t want... but I must manage this in some way... what to do? Kill myself?'

She took as firmly as possible her hands, but she was trembling again.  
She hadn' t yet suspected to be a so much frantic person, with so much vulnerability inside.

She lied in bed, and sinked her face in the pillow, crying and crying, stifling the plaints.  
The mask was abandoned on the blanket chest.

An hour passed by in a dark silence, it was Sagitter' s hour.

This thought reported her back.

' I can' t kill Seiya... so I have no chances. I must try to kill Aiolia or die. In every case, it' s better my death than Seiya' s. And, after all... I' d made already my decision, when I saved him in New Luxor.'

She rised.

' But I have no chances at all if he is covered with the armour of Leo. It' s better for me to go to the Fifth House without the Ophichius clothes, and confront him in normal conditions. He' s a loyal warrior... I think he will accept to fight without armoured suits. Maybe I' ll be lucky... the luckiest girl in the world...'

There was something ironic in her voice.  
She walked through the room, and opened the blanket chest, and gazed at the white, carefully bended dress.  
Ancient words, heard years and years ago, enlightened her memory.  
' In a world ruled by men, there are armour- clothes, surely, but also this different kind of clothes.'  
The peplum the Sorority gave to all the Amazons at the ordination.  
' If for disgrace you must become a concubine...'

A bride dress.  
A slave label.

' Oh, yes. I' m the luckiest girl in the world.', she murmured, a disenchanted smile on her beautiful, damned naked face. 


	9. Chapter 9 the shell on the sea

9. The shell on the sea.

Deep, strong meditation was excellent for him to restore his forces and making them growing, if it was possible.

Aiolia sat down, cross legged. Not he likes particularly inactivity. Having a fight, even for training, was better.

But also meditating had its own advantages.

For example, contemplating what was going on.

An image began to surface at his eyes' mind.

The tall, slender girl was walking along the beach, her bare feet kissed by a gentle wave.  
Strangely, she was dressed in a white linen peplum caressing her ankles.  
She had high heels sandals in one hand, and in the other some harvested shells.  
When she found some beautiful specimen, she stopped and got down to collect.

She had this such intense shade of sadness in her.  
And dressed like a woman, with the breeze which made adhering the peplum to her curvaceous hips, and high heels in hand, she was really sensational.  
And no mask.  
She rested for a moment, looking at the sea lied down in front of her.  
She admired the stars.  
Then, she did something more exciting than a daring caress on the lap.  
She reclined herself on the warm sable, abandoning the shells and the high heels sandals near her face, her hair fan- spreaded like ocean algae.  
Her eyes were dreaming of some strange reveries, of some strange sorceries, and he could quite smell the brackish maritim air, and taste the gentle salty flavour on her disclosed lips.

An epidermic sensation overwhelmed Aiolia, unable to penetrate her inner thoughts, and suddenly jealous of them.

' Ah, an hard on...' he breathed, pouring back the head and feeling the blood strain going wild. The image became more intense, if it was possible. It took some instants for him to return in control.

' You' re not sleeping neither tonight', he said, loudly involved in listening to her soft heartbeat, ' Difficult decision. Kill him, or kill me. Or kill both. But someone has to die. I' ll wait for you, because I know you will come here to try to take my life.'

She was softly abandoned on the beach, lost in her reflections, the shells taken back by the touch of the water which lapped her ankles, revealing her beautiful slim legs.  
A more stronger wave threw a violent shot at her siren' s body.  
Something occurred in her head, something assigned to rest unknown to Aiolia, and she moaned, getting a bit laid.  
' Shells...', the Saint said, smiling slowly, ' ... And the most beautiful shell is wooing by the sea. Fucked by the force of the sea. Hm.'  
He envied the Sea.


	10. Chapter 10 in lion' s kingdom

10. In Lion' s Kingdom.

Her dress was wet while she was ascending slowly the climb.  
Her skin was cold while she was standing indifferent in the breeze.

At every House, she called.

' Mu, Shaina' s going to the Fifth House, she asks permission.'  
No voice from Mu, returned in the Pamir.  
' Aldebaran, Shaina' s going to the Fifth House, she asks permission.'  
' Go in peace. Bring my bliss to the knight of Leo.', answered a distant, strong voice echoing in the rooms.  
' Saga, Shaina' s going to the Fifth House, she asks permission.'  
No one, neither a spectral echo, among the empty walls.  
' Death Mask, Shaina' s going to the Fifth House, she asks permission.'  
' Bloody Hell, is this the time to have a walk? Go fast, before I leave my bed and send you to Hades' doors.'

At every passage, her breath became more and more short.

And then, she stopped.  
The Fifth House of Leo, imponent in front of her.  
Her thin ankles had been scratched by cardus and other wild herbs with thorns.  
Her heart was madly running at breakneck.  
She thought that maybe it ceased to beat even before starting to fight.

She moved her first step in the darkness of Leo' s House.

' Aiolia, Shaina' s...'  
She esitated.  
' Shaina' s... here.'  
A masculine voice reached her. A sudden warm comforted her cold skin.  
The embrace of Gold. The hold of the Lion.  
' Come.'

She rested. He knew.  
Okay, she thought, it' s begun.

Leo' s House was so huge, so immense, so majestic.  
When the Moon got out of the clouds, she saw him.

Bare- chested, nonchalantly at his own ease in the most large bed she had ever seen.  
Next to him, a low little table with white and black grapes, wine of Samo and pomegranates.  
Incensing the air, a strange, undefinable vigourous scent of cluster pine.  
It was his scent.  
Shaina felt her knees quivering as that day at the Sanctuary.

' So, you aren' t able to sleep, just like me.', Aiolia said, calmly, ' Wine? Fruit? Please. Be at your leisure and leave in this house a touch of the grace you bring with you.'

Shaina was astonished. She was there, without the mask, at that time of the night, and he was acting as he was waiting for her...

' Yes.' he answered, relaxed, ' It' s in such a way. It' s been for long days I' m waiting for your coming.'

He was able to feel her thoughts.  
For a moment, she felt hurt.  
Then she took back her sense.

' Better. I can speak clearly, so.'

' Please.'

He offered again the fruit.

' No, thanks. I' m not here to have a conversation. Or to have a break.'

She was talking fast, trying to give to her voice a dry shade.

' I' m at your disposal.', he answered, and she felt more and more hit.  
Injured.  
He was so cool, so sure of himself, so sure of his predominant superiority.

' You have seen my face...'

' Yes. I' m the luckiest man in all the world.' He paused. ' Me, and Seiya, of course.'

She bited her lower lip, and he noticed, thinking her relentless angryness was really sexy.

' Yes. You and Seiya. And I suppose you know the Law.'

' Of course.'  
Aiolia' s gold cosmos binded her strictly. Shaina felt herself in warm iron chains. Hold tight in warm iron arms.  
But it was only an impression, ' cause she wasn' t touched by him.

' Of course I know the Law', he repeted, ' So, you are here for what? To kill or to fuck?'

Shaina looked at him stoned.

' Are you kidding me?' she said, nervously, ' You perfectly know I' m in love with Seiya!'

' Love? Love?'

Slowly, she heard the strong laugh of the Lion break out of his throat, echoing in all the house, echoing in the deepest of her soul.  
She needed all her self- confidence and years of training as a knight to remain in control and not to fall down at the ground.  
When the laugh deadened, Aiolia looked at her patiently.

' Look, Shaina. I want to give you an advice. Don' t confuse lust with love.'

She heard a crack in her heart, and suddenly she hated Aiolia with all her forces.

' Stop babbling silly things! I' m here to fight... and...'

'... To take my life. Allright.'

Aiolia remained so quiet. He stood up from the bed and she made a step behind. He noticed, and smiled of secret contentment.

' Let' s do a bet.'

' A bet...?'

' Yeah. Why not?'

Aiolia opened his hands, in sign of good behaviour.

' I admire you, Shaina. You haven' t esitated to protect Seiya with your life. So I want to give you a chance. Let' s fight, as is in your desire, and for your honour. But don' t ask me to kill you, not after I' ve returned you life once. I will fight, but only to win you. And if I win...'

Shaina arrested him.

' Why are you so damned sure to win me? And if I fight for kill you?'

' You can kill me, if you are able to. That' s in your right. Law speaks clear. But if I win you, you' ll be mine. We' ll fuck. Can you accept the bet?'

Shaina bited again her lips.  
She couldn' t kill Seiya. Aiolia had to die.

' Okay. Stay ready.'

' I' m ready since the first time I saw your face.'

He was so calm. So bold. So strong in his inner.

Shaina prepared herself to attack.


	11. Chapter 11 the sun at midnight

11. The Sun at Midnight.

The air was soaked with fluid electricity.  
Shaina was extremely conscious of Aiolia' s dense cosmos, it was expanding around like a gold cascade, taking every corner of the House.  
Her silver' s was having an involution, as it was undaunted, and this fact made her growing in hatress.  
Only then she was understanding High Priestess' words when she had said ' Kill the Bronze, is better.'  
Aiolia didn' t need an armour to win.

' What' s the matter, Priestess?' asked him, looking at her with such a fighting dignity, ' Aren' t you sure to deal with the consequences?'

' Shut up!' she screwed, touched in her honour another time, ' I have no fear.'

' I' m sure you haven' t. But for your honour' s sake it' s better you renounce, and accept the conditions.'

He was serious, irritatingly serious.

' Hah!'  
She spitted out a dry laugh, without any fun.  
' You think it' s so simple to fuck me on, huh? You men, you' re all the same. You all only want to take possession over a woman. I' m rid of all this male chauvinism!'

Aiolia raised an eyebrow.

' What a strong expression to use. Maybe you prefer to be taken by the Sea?'

She blushed violently, then lost her control.

' Stop it, I said!'

She cried histerically, and hysterically attacked, and this was her first mistake.

' Ah, the emotivity for a woman, what a cross.' Aiolia stepped in the side. Shaina didn' t see his movement.  
Her face showed all her consternation.

' How beautiful you are, when you are surprised', he said, ' There' s something naive in you.'

' You talk too much and don' t fight!' she sprang out, adhirated.

' I talk because I have a guest, it' s not fair to keep the silence.', he said, and another time she punched the air, ' cause his movement was too fast to be seen.

' You' re joking me, like the cat with the mouse...' she gasped for breath desperately, and noticed he wasn' t sweating, nor panting.

' No, Priestess, not at all... like the Lion with the Ophiucus, precisely.'

' You like humiliating me, you bastard!'

She was furious this time, and something changed, she moved like a wild cat, beautiful and savage, with fiery glittering eyes.  
What a spirit, he thought, then this time he stopped her shot emprisoning her thin wrists in his hands.  
There was a moment of proud resistance between them, a moment he could admire Shaina' s untamed expression, fulfilling himself with that vision, feeling the blood strain running madly.  
She saw his deep lust in the fearless gaze which was standing hers.  
And suddenly she knew how to make a strike. How to shoot him, finally.

' That' s irrelevant...' she said softly, perversely smiling, ' You could have such a glance all the time, you can win me too how much times you want... and even fuck me... but my body... and my soul... belong to another...', she whispered finally, her voice vibrating in a warm, bitchy way, filled with fake, ironic passion for him, kidding him.

Something crashed with uproar in Aiolia' s pride, leaving him suddenly furious.

' So, that' s your strike, Shaina... I thought you were loyal...'

She had time to see a bloody hell glance in his eyes before being pushed away against a doric column. She remained out of breath from the fast aggressiveness.

Her eyes could see only some speedy flashes around her, beautiful afterglows instantly discharged, as a sun storm was investing the Earth.  
She thought it was her time to die, and strangely, she wasn' t suffering.  
All those radiance was comforting, entered in her veins not to wound her, but to warm her cold soul.

Maybe this portion of Sun was just in her, maybe that portion of Universe was there only to be discovered.

The Sun at Midnight.

She closed her eyes and when the column which support her collapsed, she fell apart too.


	12. Chapter 12 the breath of a silver cosmos

12. The breath of a silver cosmos.

' Seiya...'

Seiya stopped his run and stood up in the middle of the park, looking at the sky.  
In Greece now had to be night.

' Strange feeling... ' he thought, drying his sweat,' It' s like Shaina' s calling me from the deepest regions of the Universe, but I' m sure she is alive, and she' s well. There some strange peace in her, as I never felt before in her silver cosmos... I hope everything' s right...'

Something was hurting him, like someone else' s cosmos was entering in Shaina' s.  
A powerful one.  
Seiya searched for the owner of the cosmos.  
Gold, puissant, fiery.  
So similar to particles of cosmos on the Sagitter' s armour.  
Bloody similar.

' Aiolia...' murmured Seiya, and suddenly felt outraged. Robbed.  
Jealous.


	13. Chapter 13 dreaming a dream

13. Dreaming a dream, rough back to reality.

She opened her eyes, finding herself lied down on his bed.  
The night was turning at dawn but stars were still in the sky.

' There are stars even in your eyes.'

She looked at him silently. He was streched above her, covering her body with his shadow.

Shaina remembered the humiliating scene of her dress taken by force and ripped away from her body before loosing her consciousness, his solid grab which destroyed the frail linen on her breasts, her nipples burning of shame, his manly voice hurling in that hell,

' You' re a woman, dress like a woman, live like a woman, love like a woman, he isn' t for you, he' s only a child, not a man, and you are the silliest girl in the world, preferring the chastity of your bed and a dream who' s not real instead of living your femininity... tell me again you love him if you have courage, you haven' t never seen love in your whole frigid existance!'

That voice roaring in her, his hot skin, her closed eyes, the columns collapsing like breakable clay, the levity of her body when he lifted her from the ground, that muscular force which blunted her, softened her, moulded her like she was made of clay too.

What a shame, being so frail in comparison to him.

From the long distance of the Universe she heard her proper voice singing an old song of Borodin, the Polovtsian Dances, with sopranile tone.

In the Sorority House, once she was used to sing playing the harp.

So she had done a mistake. So he was just a child. So she hadn' t any chance to live her love.

A tear rolled down, brilliant and beautiful.

' Seiya...' , her soul whispered.

' Seiya, Seiya... always Seiya!' shouted Aiolia, becoming angry again, ' Allright, you need a lesson, girl. Spread your legs out!'


	14. Chapter 14 confusing kill and kiss

14 Confusing Kill with Kiss.

Night was slowly turning at dawn, and she had left herself to the high tide, whipped- up on and off in a bloody viscousity, and this was strangely rough, and strangely sweet.

A solace with pain, a comfort which hurt, a battle, and a deal, with a God, that indecent God who was sweating all his life and all his blood on her in the hardest way, above her, into her, over her, taking for himself the precious veil of her purity, dishonoring her, murmuring to her ear pornographic oaths of passion in exchange for that virginity which was the real label of freedom to all the Amazons, and his vote was solemn, not a joke.

Now, he was sweating. Not when he was fighting, but now, when he was fucking. Like mad. She felt outrageously adulated.

Her tender flesh was learning how was hosting a hard flesh in herself, like being something soft, cosy and welcoming who could receive all the Universe, sinking in which was a dream for all men.

And, in fact, in that lunar, female nirvana he was going down and down, loosing the sense of himself and of his strenght.

In that moment, among the bluntness and the faintness, Shaina, in an abstract manner, tought he was in the ideal position to be killed.

On her, into her, seeming so powerful, he was also so vulnerable.  
Shaina listened to his single groan holding him tight, as with a child she had to cheer before punishing.  
Her thin hands were running on that bronzed broad back, tasting every convulsion, every bounce inspired by an intense pleasure which promised at every moment that orgasmic resolution he was hunting so much.

And her perfect- manicured long nails were caressing with blissful attitude, and sometimes, when pleasure became too intense, also scraping, leaving long red strips on his wet skin.

And his nape was so near to her fingers. So unprotected. Achille' s heel.

Now, she could have in return her honour.  
An amount of voices, the Reverend Mother, the Sorority, the Law, all the women of all the Universe, all the women through the years, all the women without freedom, without position, al the women closed in houses, in harems, in bedlams, all the women left outside society, all the women owned by men, all the women of her family,all the women forced to wear a sempiternal mask, were crying in her soul. She, was crying in her soul.

Kill him. Win yourself. Win Seiya. Win the man you want.

Kiss him. Loose yourself. Loose Seiya. Be won by the man you don' t want.

Kill. Kiss.

Be free. Be his. Be yours. Be slave. Be...

In the decline of all this thoughts, Shaina desired to loose her senses again.  
She brought the left hand, the hand of the Thunder Claw, on his neck.  
And then, suddenly, from the vastity of the Universe, an image arose.  
A vision of renewed innocence.  
She looked at the little beautiful baby with soft cheeks so similar to her elegant cheekbones, but with light brown hair, and blond, frail eyelashes, baby- blue eyes which would have become of a shining forest green, or maybe, a sweet water green, like hers.  
And he was so little, so lovely, a sleeping treasure in the Hand of the Universe, that she felt her heart having a crush on him even if he existed only in the Mind of God for instance.

' My baby...' she said with a hint of voice, and in that moment, from the deepest of the Earth, a jolt arrived, and he moved fast, coming intensely in her, destroyed by his own burning fire.  
Shaina' s left hand caressed him, her long cold fingers sinked in his hair.  
Sun was rising, revealing the same honey- brown nuance she had seen in that lost- in stars- dream.


	15. Chapter 15 enjoying the defeat

15. Enjoying the defeat.

' I had a possibility. The chance. In that moment, I could. But I' m a looser. I' m not able to kill Seiya. I wasn' t able to take advantage of an unrepeatable occasion with Aiolia. I' m dishonoured twice, first loosing the mask, then loosing my virginity. I' m a delusion to my Reverend Mother. I' d rather die than living with such a shame.'

Shaina' steps were heavy on the beach, her dress reduced to a rag. She looked at the sea, and she thought to her shells, especially the oyster, with that enchanting pearly nuance inside.  
She had forgotten them on the wet sable, and they had been brought away by the waves.

So that' s it. If you don' t care, everything precious has stolen from you, she thought, then she walked on.

She couldn't remain looking at the Sea much longer, the day was beginning, and she was without mask and with a ripped white dress with bloodstains. She had to come back fast.

When she entered her little house, she fell down against the closed door.

Tears appeared.

She had run up the sacred hill only to return dissacrated.  
And she hadn' t neither the excuse to say she had been defeated because she had been raped.  
No. She had enjoyed it. Very much. Too much.

Unfaithful to Sorority. Unfaithful to Seiya. Unfaithful to herself.

Maybe faithful only to Aiolia.


	16. Chapter 16 mad about this

16. Mad about this.

' I don' t understand the necessity to go to Greece.'  
Saori was having her afternoon tea, and looked at Seiya in a strange manner.

' Lady Saori, I want to talk to... ' Seiya paused. He didn' t want to lie, but neither saying his own facts. ' ... To Marin, for some special training. Meeting a Gold Saint has made me feel inadequate to protect you properly. Before going to the Sanctuary, I want spending some time with Marin to improve new tecniques.'

Saori, in silence, was looking at him without too many convinction.  
Seiya felt under examination, and this put him in awe.  
He wasn' t lying at all; but the main reason for him to leave New Luxor for Greece was that strange invasion of Aiolia' s cosmos in Shaina' s.

He had talked about it only with Shiryu, just arrived from China.

' Invasion? ' had said the Dragon, ' Are you sure? Isn' t possible, instead, that they are having...'

' Having what, Shiryu?'

' Having a so- called fun. Sex, y' know.'

This a was a bad feeling Seiya was trying to avoid, but it were some nights he wasn' t able to sleep.

Something was happening, in Greece.

' All right, Seiya.'

Saori stood up, looking at him.

' You can go, here to protect me there are the other knights. And Shiryu too went to his teacher to improve. So have a nice journey and be back sooner.'

Seiya greeted her with a bow. He felt ashamed to haven' t tell her all the truth.

He was so much interested in Saori.

But now, he discovered he was interested in Shaina too.

And he loved to see Marin.

But before leaving he had to greet Miko.

Too women. What a damage.

But first of all... an old friend, suddenly become enemy and rival.

An old friend, who was fucking one of his beloved women.

And fucking one of his favourites was like fucking him.

Seiya was going berserk.

' I won' t be trodden by him, Shiryu', he said, packing his armour.

Shiryu strangely turned a deaf ear.

' Ah, man, if you want to be broken by that young bull for a woman you' re not sure to love, go and try to take him by horns. But don' t call me for help. I won' t come to rescue you.'

Seiya wasn' t able to contain himself, even if he knew perfectly his behaviour was irrational.

He reserved a fly, then some days after the permission of Saori, with his armour well covered among the luggage of the check- ins, left Japan for Europe.


	17. Chapter 17 awakening in loneliness

17. Awakening in loneliness and rage.

Days passed by, and he wasn' t able to forgive her for that sudden abandon.  
That morning he woke up, sun at the zenith, and didn' t find her.  
And called her first with interrogative voice, then with autority, then he sinked in silence.  
She had left.  
She had quit him.  
He was alone again.  
He had waited for her return another time.  
She hadn' t returned.  
He began to stay closed in his fierce resentment.  
Immediately, he had thought to go the Great Temple to complain with the High Priest and claim his right on her.  
Then, in the middle of the night, when he went in search for her faint cosmos, he heard her crying and crying and calling ' Seiya' among sobs.

' Ah, this girl doesn' t want to grow...' he said finally in the vastity of the Fifth House, ' She prefers not paying attention to reality and livin' an insane dream she won' t never touch...'

And he became more and more sad.  
For himself, for her.  
So, distraught between rage and compassion, he did nothing.  
Restraining his heart' s tears for himself, he decided to have mercy of her and returned to lead his normal life, training and mastering the way of a knight.

Then, after some days, he noticed a change in the air.  
A well- known flow was entering the Greek sky.  
And it was a furious cosmos.

' Seiya...' Aiolia said, ' Finally. Come, and let' s see who' s really deserving her.'

Seiya had just put a step in the Greek soil, that he heard that so familiar golden cosmos.  
And it was enraged the same way as his.


	18. Chapter 18 bleeding in her heart

18. Bleeding in her heart.

She was so weak that Cassios had to brought her food that she never touched.  
She stayed lied in bed all the day, in half- light, without a word.  
When Cassios tried to ask her, she covered her ears and began crying under the iron mask.  
So Cassios was mortified and stayed silently next to her.

She had done a request, a simple one.

' Go, please, to the Sorority House and ask Nemes to give you a dress for me. Not a white one, a rose or a red dress, or even a turquoise. But not white.'

' A... a dress, Shaina?'

' Yes, a dress. A female dress. A long dress. You don' t think I could wear a simple female dress?'  
Her voice was painfully dry, and Cassios wondered and wondered why she was so heart- broken.

' That' s right, Shaina. I' ll ask Nemes a dress.'

' Not a white one! I hate white!'

' Okay...'

' And ask her to give me also an incense perfume and a jewel. A necklace made with little pink pearly shells, preferably, or with red corals. Go.'

' Okay...'

Cassios, so fond of her who was his trainer, as the most of men, didn' t know about the symbolism of colours in Priestesses' ideas, so he went, only to find that Nemes was strangely concerned about Shaina and insisted for she came to the Sorority to talk with the High Priestess.  
He returned more quizzled than ever, referred to her Nemes' request, and gave her all the things Nemes had packed: two dresses, a little box full of rare perfumes, some jewels.  
There was also a smooth bracelet wrapped in a papyrus sheet. Shaina read carefully the papyrus and began to contemplate with a strange glance the bracelet.

' What' s all of this, Shaina?'

' Don' t you know?' she answered, ' This is a little part of my dowry, stored at the Sorority House. All the girls have one.'

' Dowry...?' Cassios felt his knees loosing sensibility. ' You think to marry, Shaina?'

' No.'

She was thrilled looking at those bracelet.

' So for what...?'

' Do you see this?'

Shaina lifted the bracelet.

' Yeah...'

' This is a slavery jewel. A woman put it not at the wristle, but in the high part of the left arm, near the shoulder. When a girl begins to bring it, stops to wear the mask. You know, what my mask means, ain' t you?'

Cassios was stoned. He wasn' t able to understand, female world had such a complex rituals.  
Shaina went on.

' It' s smooth, without any ornament. And that is because the only ornament which can be engraved, is the name of the man who possesses the girl. Do you understand what I mean now, Cassios?'

Cssios felt himself trembling.

' Shaina, you mean that you renounce to your freedom to enter in the hands of someone...?'

' I had, my dear pupil. I had. I was beaten twice.'

' You? Beaten...?'

' Yes, me. Beaten.'

Shaina looked at the box full of precious essences.

' Once, by Seiya. Yes, don' t do this face. He has seen my face. And the second time, by Aiolia. And he also has seen my face. I can' t kill none fo them both. So I can' t take back my honour and my freedom.'

Silence fell down. After a while, Cassios asked, trembling:

' And... who of the two...'

' Who?' Shaina laugh without joy. ' It' s simple. The High Priestess has sent me this message.'  
She lifted also the papyrus. ' She has written her disposals... only three words... ' The most powerful.' This is her answer to all my doubts. Not the man you love. Not the man you aren' t able to kill. The most powerful of the two, y' know. In your opinion, Cassios, who' s the most powerful?'

' If Seiya fights with Aiolia, he has no chance to win.'

' Exactly. So that' s the answer to your question.'

Cassios cried in his soul. Not all the men could reach the high peak of inner and outer strenght. He himself, as knight, had failed, remaining a common warrior.  
But Aiolia' s not. His blood was Aiolos' blood, an astonishing puissance.  
Cassios looked at her.  
Two men has seen her beautiful face. Only two men.  
Luckiest men among all men, he thought.  
But surely Shaina' s face was like a ray of light, so it could be right she lived in the huge Fifth House, when the Sun in the morning invaded in a gentle gold cascade all the white columns, and the breeze from the Sea kindly brought the perfume of the waves.  
Then, a doubt accessed to his mind.

' Shaina... don' t say me you do this to save Seiya' s life.'

It would have been the second time. Shaina smiled sadly under her mask, but her voice sounded coolly.

' Don' t say foolishnesses. I' m following the reglements my beloved Sorority gives me. Now, Cassios, be kind. I' d like to stay alone and prepare myself.'

Cassios exited with a strange bitter flavour in his mouth.  
She was preparing herself.  
As a bride would have done.

Cassios squeezed his heart. But a tear escaped the same.


	19. Chapter 19 following her senses

19. Following her senses.

So double sensation, so double experience.  
Running up that hill was like going to Golgota in her mind, to Hell in her soul, but to Heaven in her body.  
She wasn' t able to explain to herself that mesmerizing feeling which took her senses everytime she went with the thought to that damned evening.  
She blushed, then she chased off the memory that sensual image of two entwined bodies, two entwined cosmos, both tantalized by vibrant ardours, who were mortally attracted.

She was trying to remove the event, but not for disgust, but for fear.  
Fear of that enjoyment.  
Fear to remember herself allowing in the more complete way.

She remembered well her slim arms, arms of an harpist, clung to his immense shoulders.

She remebered the blood, and the languors after the blood.

All those nights repeating herself: ' Nevermore. Nevermore. Nevermore.', only to feel her skin whispering and shivering.

Another time. Only another. Another time.

This was not love, she was repeating herself, I can' t, it' s indecent, an abomination.  
Or not?

He had said, ' Don' t confuse lust with love.'

What was she living, so?  
An intense form of shameful lust? A new face of unknown love? Both the realities?

Had she dreamt a child, or had she seen part of the future? A possible event?  
Or maybe an unmentionable desire?

And her love for Seiya?  
But what sort of love had she had for Seiya?

A chast love. Unreachable. Untouchable. Secret. With no implications at all. A proper love. Honest love. Not an indecent one.

Most of all, a secure love. Secure, yes.  
For her freedom and for her honour.  
Nobody would know about this love- it was platonic.

She could have dreaming of it in total security the entire life.

As Aiolia had said, dreaming of it in her chast bed.

And without knowing the hot bites of the flesh.

The thought invested her with all the light of a flame.

Now for what was she suffering? For having lost Seiya... or for having found she was not a knight, nor Priestess, but...

' ... A bitch.'

She whispered the word like in trance.

Thinking it, she was arrived at the Fifth House doors.

In the large thermal pool enlightened only by candles, leaned against the board, he opened his eyes.  
The soft silver cosmos he enjoyed was doing the first step in his House after so much days.  
' You' ve come back...'  
He prepared himself to host the new situation.


	20. Chapter 20 confusing lust and love

20. Confusing Lust and Love.

Darkness in the Fifth House wasn' t as darkness in the Third or Fourth House.  
In Leo' s kingdom obscurity was only another warm nuance of the sun, a Dark Sun.  
She felt protected there.  
She felt like a special guest.

It was strange.  
That House was waiting for her for so long, the marble was waiting for her, the columns, the echo... all. Especially the owner.  
She searched the side of the house where the bed was.  
Loosing orientation was so easy.

Then, her cosmos addressed her steps, and she found first the collapsed column, then the great bed which was enlightened by the Moon.  
Following the laws of Feng Shui,the bed was oriented to East, where the Sun rised.

The white sheets were empty. He wasn' t there.  
Shaina didn' t call.

She reclined sweetly herself, to find traces in the sheets of that pine scent. She became loosing herself in the moonlight, lied in its pale reflects.

A shadow overwhelmed her, but she didn' t move. A tall body on the bed. A breath in her hair. His lips on her slight neck. Her skin jumped at the warm touch of his hand on her naked arm.

' I didn' t wait for you, Priestess.'

' I thought you did...'

She was wrapped in a soft, lovable evanescence fulfilled with love promises, but unable to turn and look at him.

She was giving and retreating herself like a shy, indolent wave.

He looked at her coral stretch dress and inspired her incensy scent. The little necklace.  
And an interesting jewel in her left arm.  
A slavery label.  
What excitment.  
And, bloody hell, he thought also at her long legs entwined to his. Her thin ankles to lick till knees and further. Her desirable hips. The hard on he had on her. The hard on he had to calm down. The crush on her he had to forget. Unhappy day the day he saw her true face. He was in a place to kill, and all this charme killed him, instead. This wasn' t in his programs. The Beauty of the Earth. The Child of the Sky.

' In fact, I didn' t. I neither thought you had the courage to come back.'

He was determined to give her a heavy time.  
He could accept to be only a fucking stallion for her, but couldn' t accept to be the second choice.  
You can' t reduce a lion to a praying kitten, he thought by himself, in resentment, resisting to her tender touch which was running on his arm.  
It was an agony to reprime the attraction he felt.  
Better alone than being an escort useful only to forget the feeling for another, he remembered.

Shaina again refused to turn and substain his fiery, eager gaze who was devouring her.  
She felt to be entirely in Lion' s paws.  
She looked at the Moon, searching comfort there for the right answer.  
She could say him she was there for Love. Or for Lust. Or whatever. For Love and Lust.  
Because you shorten my breath, and make me panting. Because you plunge me in delirium.  
But was the Mask which gave her the comfort of the answer.

' The Law...'

' Fuck the Law.', he said, promptly.

Silence increased.

Then, slowly, she turned on her side to look at him.  
To look at what she had gained.

She had gained a Gold Saint. A traitor' s brother. A motherfucker. A mad dog. The sexiest dog.  
She lifted her fingers to his face, she caressed his lower lip and suddenly he felt himself overcome in an hypnotizing way.

About Priestesses, people told they were women mastering some sort of magick.  
Maybe those rare essences she was infused of.  
Or maybe some bewitching movements... maybe he was ignorant, but some gestures had sacred value, and maybe this...

... She adhered sensually against him, dangerously against him, sinking her hands in his hair, and now, yeah, she was entwining her legs to his, touching tenderly his face...

' Kiss me...' she said, in a loud moaning, her eyes become liquid, ' You haven' t kissed me the last time... neither once...'

He felt weak, so weak, so little.  
So miaowing kitten in viper' s luscious embrace.  
Her silver silk was subjugating his expanded gold.  
A shot without power, a shot without speed, a shot which didn' t destroy, a shot which drugged the veins, a formidable intoxicating shot he couldn' t manage in any way.  
Once he heard a legend, about Endymion, powerful King of Sun, who was felt in love with Phoebe, the Goddess of the Moon. She asked him to live his whole life in sleeping and dreaming of her. He accepted.

... And now he was falling apart, doped, desiring only to sleep in her lovely, morpheic long arms, wishing only to sleep and never awaken.

His poor liony pride, where could he find the force to subtract himself from that enchanting sorcery, that dreaming sorcery, that black sorcery?  
She wasn' t a Priestess, she was a witch, he decided.  
With the last sprint of energy, he emprisoned her wristles in his hands and said, less firmly:

' No... kisses are for lovers... not for fuckers...'

Shaina' s eyes were disclosed, brilliant as she was living with permanent tears willing to fall, but unable to.

' Please...' she murmured, and felt him contracting, his masculine body adhering to her curves against his will.

He shut up, listening to the soft touch of her lips on his.

' ...You think to be the only and the one to have a pride to protect...' he said, suddenly, and with major effort he turned his back to her, feeling inadequate.  
It was the worst battle he had ever fought.  
The Lion is loosing all his boldness, he thought, enraged against himself, against her charming class.

' What...?'

Shaina didn' t believe at her ears. She felt outraged.

' You did to me all this stuff about living life et cetera, and now you... you...'

' I' m saying only... why do you think I want you anymore?'  
Aiolia heard his manly voice loosing puissance in the tone.  
He had no weapons to defend himself but this. Refusing her. Renouncing to her.  
'... I don' t want to have one of...'  
Aiolia felt the rage growing up remembering her tears for Seiya.

'... One of Seiya' s harem' s girl!'

This wasn' t honourable; but he wanted to hurt her, in the same manner he was remained hurt by her disappearing.  
And he didn' t want to succumb to her fascinating allure.  
She had to be his without all of this feminine power.  
She had to lower her beautiful eyes, and to be respectful.  
Yeah, in some way, he was chauvinist.  
He discovered then he couldn' t stand not to be able to master a situation.  
And he was afraid, terribly afraid of those new deepest sensations she gave him.  
Forget Seiya, hate me and be mine, he thought, hurt in himself.  
Love is too complicate. Lust' s more simpler. And doesn' t make me feel a cat who purrs... a cat she can pet or she can forget at her leisure.

' You bastard...' said Shaina, wounded in her inner.

' You couldn' t come here, Priestess, lying in my bed, then let me give you one shot and then go without saying a word, neither thank you or fuck you, if Seiya whistles!' he shouted, feeling jealousy overreaching his self control, ' What the fuck is this? Wam slang bang thank you ' Ma' am?? Is this your honourable style?'

When he turned to look at her, she slapped him in the face.  
He rested.  
A moment before she was caressing, now she was slapping him.  
Aiolia swallowed with temperance, then said, more in control:

' Whore.'

Shaina managed to lift from the bed decisely.

' And it was me who was confusing lust and love...'

He took her wristle and with roughness attracted her to him.

' I' ll save your honour.', he whispered on her lips, ' But at two conditions. First, you must submit yourself publically in front of the High Priest, the HIg Priestess, and all the Saints. Second... no more Seiya!'

She looked intensely at him, now with viper' s green poison in her eyes.

' You' re beautiful when you are enraged...' he said, but this time he wasn' t mesmerized, only admirated. He was in self control and in a situation of balance.

' And maybe there' s something which belongs to me.', he said coolly, but touching her left arm with sensual softness.  
She took the bracelet off and threw it in his lap.

' Take it.', said icely.

He brought it and looked at the plain surface against the moonlight.

' Allright. It will be ready in some days. With name, et cetera.'

And all the world will know, she thought foolly, Seiya too.

' Yes, Seiya too...' he said, sweetly, and took her chin among fingers.  
Now he could taste her lips in total security.


	21. Chapter 21 looking for truth

21. Looking for truth.

' Again...'

Seiya stopped, his armour in his shoulder, and looked in the Greek sky.

Stars were glittering far from him, the night was calm and soft.

The ideal night for close encounters, he thought woth a hint of envy.

Saori' s image rised up, makin' him feeling guilty.  
Then. Shaina' s rised up, makin' him feeling in urgency.

And that sudden sensation, two cosmos, a silver and a golden one, in a unique mélange.  
He closed his eyes tight, and felt his head burning.

NO NO NO NO NO NO.

He just came from Shaina' s little house, only to find a key- closed door.

He faced the Sacred Hill and became nervous.

Maybe it wasn' t in the way he thought.  
Maybe Shaina' s only training with a Gold Saint for reaching an upper level- after all, the Ophiucus had reached the dignity of Thirteen Zodiacal Animal.  
Maybe this union wasn' t what Shiryu supposed to be.  
Maybe it was only duty... only duty, not sex. Not Love.

' I have to see Marin, surely she will know what' s going on... before talking to Shaina, or to confront Aiolia, is better to know how the things are... maybe...'

Seiya saddened. He whispered, looking at those silent stars who stared at him.

' ... Maybe all is innocent... I hope... I can' t stand the idea the woman who loves me messes around with another... and a friend and a loyal rival- in fighting messes up a woman who he knows has a soft spot for me...'


	22. Chapter 22 blood of your brother

22. Blood of your Brother.

He had stood up, and now was with one shoulder leaned against a column.

He was looking at the Sea. Some rays of electricity flashed speedy in the distance. A storm was rising, blowing in his veins.

He was listening to something.

Better.

He was sensing something.  
Something she couldn' t imagine.

Golden cosmos were so high- ranking to have the perception of every beat of the Earth.

Lied on her side, she wasn' t able to leave her eyes from his back.  
She caressed the white sheets, all wrinkled in a mess. A whirl of wind made her freezing in little shivers.

He sensed also this.

' Sleep, Shaina. You' re tired. A storm comes from the Sea. Soon its rage will cover the Stars, and after flashes there will be thunders in the air. Don' t be afraid.', he said, without turning.

She wondered in what way he could know she hated tempests. In some way, a tempest was inside of him.

' Sleep and don' t take care about what I' m doing.', he finished.

' I didn' t explain myself my faintless...'

She lowered her eyes. Yes, why after having touched the Seventh Heaven hosting him in her flesh, she was so weak?

' You' ve got too frail constitution and too frail cosmos, in some way, to support mine. This is the reason you feel exhausted after.'

All her thoughts he knew. She smiled in a pale manner.

He sensed that lithe smile, and felt overwhelmed again.

He couldn' t turn, or he would have lost himself another time.

When she was so adorable she was also so dangerous.

It seemed to him to have drunk a misterious elixir with intoxicating properties, maybe absinthe. She was, definetely, his Fée Vert.

' Tell me of your brother.', she said lightly, without warning.

The request was astonishing.

He esitated, then said:

' Everybody knows my brother' s story. There' s nothing to add.'

' Was he so brave as they said before that night? More than you?'

Aiolia expirated. That continuous comparing with Aiolos, especially for their physical ressemblance.  
He had always had to demonstrate to be at Aiolos' highness in strenght, and to be better, much better, in loyalty to the Temple.  
A heavy inheritance in some way he had managed.  
And, even with this, he was hated by most, but now it wasn' t like during his childhood.  
Now none dared to abuse him as they did many years ago.

' Shaina...'  
He didn' t see where she wanted to go.

' ... He was training you to wear his own cloth, is it true? If it had been possible, would you have choosen to wear Sag...'

' No!' he shouted, loosing his aplomb, ' I wouldn' t. I respect his memory too much to take his place, even if... even if on him there are still obvious complaining, plus an huge amount of well- engeneered shits by cowards.  
I don' t want to enter in the theme of his betrayal. He would have had his own reasons I don' t know. He didn' t say me why he decided to act in such a way. But Aiolos was a carismatic man, more than me, for answering to your first question. With so much strenght to make collapse half- mountain. It doesn' t exist and won' t never exist a more terrible shot like the Atomizer Thunder Volt. No one can take his place, this is the reason I prefered to fight for Leo' s cloth than going in search of Sagitter' s and claim the property as a blood right. And...'

He turned, finally, coming back to her, lying on her.

' ... And if you wanted to subliminally suggest that if in New Luxor Seiya has wore Sagitter' s cloth, it' s because he' s Aiolos' heir, I' ll promise you I' ll make this blasphemous thought going off from your mind, even if I must break your head!'

He sinked his hands in her silky hair, and pressed her temples with an instinct of strange solemn rage. But she wasn' t in awe. She looked at him confidentially. She was all abandoned and serene. A bewitching amenity.

' So...' she said, finally, smiling gentle, ' Can I go to my sisters and make them feeling envious ' cause I' m dating the brother of an hero?'

He left astonished the taking on her temples.  
Then, looked at her with paternal indulgence before stooping on her disclosed lips.

' Girl, you' re really a witch- bitch...', he said, then he felt only her lovable arms, her wonderful legs around him.


	23. Chapter 23 nightmares

23. Nightmares.

When the storm discharged its fury on the Greek soil, Seiya was just fell asleep in the little hut he housed when he was a child in training.  
Surely Marin at the morning would have come and found him couched on the straw.

He had intention to do a loto of things, talk with her, talk to Shaina, then eventually going to the Arena and searching for the Saint of Leo.

But now he was sleeping nightmarish hours.

In a flash he saw himself fighting with Aiolia, all both in a mudd pool and covered with blood straws.

In another he saw himself running behind Shaina but she was disappearing in the Sea, without mask and with a strange engraved bracelet on her left arm.

Then, he had memories of the imponent Saint of Leo walking through the park in New Luxor for taking his life.

And then again, the image of Aiolos appeared, but his eyes were Aiolia' eyes.

In a last vision, Shaina in a black ripped dress was lied without consciousness on a high rock which seemed an altar, offered in sacrifice to a dark shadow, and Saori was arriving, calling him tenderly.

All of this sounded so weird and so fast, an image behind an another, and so vivid he could say to have lived every single situation.

Then a fresh dawn arrived, and he heard the familiar touch of Marin' s hand on his shoulder.

' Seiya, open your eyes, what are you doing' here in Greece?'

He woke up, as it was time to have his training.


	24. Chapter 24 bites of jealousy

24. Bites of jealousy.

Her brown eyes were they only thing her mask didn' t cover.  
Her brown eyes were eagle- named.  
Her brown eyes looked at the woman who was walking, bare feet, on the sand.  
The woman far from the highline of the rocks where she was standing.  
The woman with high- heels in one hand, and shells in the other.  
Sea at twilight, when Sun was kissing the woman' s feet, and her hiking stepped in a strange, catwalkish, way.

That hike was sensual, on her curvaceous hips it was possible to perceive the weight of long nights of languors.  
The eagle- eyes glittered of rage.

' Shaina...' Marin murmered, ' It' s so, now... '  
The woman on the beach was too far too listen to her rabid cosmos, but anyway she wouldn' t.  
She was too pervaded by liquid, luscious atmosphere to take care of everything else.

Marin felt tears sprouting from her eyes.

' So Seiya' s fears are right... you walk the Sacred Hill every night wrapped in incense and amber... and you stop your ascension only when you' re at the Fifth House... you have tasted the flavour of the forbidden fruit... with the man I was waiting for a proposal!'

Marin felt pain running fast in her cosmos.  
A sudden hand got down on her shoulder.  
Marin jolted, but said nothing.  
A boyish voice talked.

' I need explanation from her.'

Seiya' s eyes in the last triumph of Sun were watery- shining, his tone full of sadness.

' I need revenge from him...'

Now his voice was badly dark.

Marin looked towards the Fifth House and slowly answered her pupil:

' Don' t loose your mind. Before going to him ask that woman...'

She couldn' t keep herself from bitterness.  
She gave a last glance at the girl who was disappearing at the horizon.  
In that moment, Marin saw a gold cascade surronding the tall, frail appearance.

Aiolia' s cosmos.  
No.  
The Sun dying in incandescent lava.  
Tears rolled down again.  
That Sun around her, wooing her, so similar to volcanic lava, was Aiolia' s cosmos.

That cosmos who kissed her feet on the sand, every step she did.

Marin looked frantically at the requiem of a dream.


	25. Chapter 25 the shell and the sea

25. The Shell and the Sea.

' So that' s it... future advances.'

He was sure something was coming to the front.

Seiya' s was coming to the front. But a light intersection was present too.

Strange feeling.

Aiolia was sure Seiya wasn' t alone.

He closed his eyes and with a hint of rejection saw Marin' s figure.

Something in him had an outburst, as he would have touched the fire; Aiolia turned fastly his back to the scenary.

Then, he stopped to think.

A painful spot appeared.

' I didn' t joke with you, Marin.', he said, talking to the empy walls. ' I didn' t joke.'

Some months ago, he was sure Marin would have been his definite choice.

He had planned to ask her to undress the cloths of a warrior Priestess.

He was sure, so sure he couldn' t contemplate any other better solution.  
Everything was there with Marin: comprehension, confidence, friendship... friendship.

That was the point.

He turned again and his shrill eyes crossed the trail.

Looking down, he saw Shaina with her bunch of shells in hand.

His heart missed a beat, his breath took a pause.

She was the point.

Her face was the point.

That face, exquisitely well- chiseled, yet possessed of an undefinable, haunting sadness. Languidly indifferent, yet capable of projecting immense passion.  
And no face save Shaina' s has communicated him deep emotion with the same contradictory mix of intensity and calm. His suffering Priestess, ethereally sensuous.

He could have been thought to Marin as a companion for life before seeing that face.

Shaina was something more deeper than a companion for life, he knew, and that was the reasonhe could think to her only as a slave. She touched the more darkest sides of his behaviour, ad he felt the remote possibility to be himself in good and evil with her. She was beyond every decence.  
She was a dream, an escaping reality, a faintless sphinx whith taciturn manner in a hurt cosmos and compelling, complex feelings he wasn' t able to unveil at all.

He would have respected Marin, surely; respected her, being fond of her, but not burning for her.  
Shaina was unrespectable, and was the passion only once in life a man could see.

And all the rest was fucking off.

' Forgive me, Marin.', he said, and sudden he felt relieved.

Shaina was near enough to lift at him her peacock- coloured gaze and stopped, the shells squeezed in her hand.

From the stair- steps he threw her an object.

She looked at the slavery bracelet in the powder of the track.  
Then, slowly, she picked up it, to give a glance at the engraved name on it.

' You see', he said, triumphant spirit, before entering the sensual obscurity of his House, ' The Sea could leave a shell on the sand. But everytime after a while it comes to rescue her in his arms.'

She answered nothing, and followed him into the deepest.


	26. Chapter 26 cruel against his will

26. Cruel against his will.

His steps echoed in the empty walls.  
He appreciated the majesty of Leo' s House. It was his majesty.

He wasn' t willing to go to train himself.  
He preferred resting, and think by himself.

The events were going on fast.

In that exact moment, maybe Shaina was in conversation with her High Priestess for sharing her the bracelet.

Six letters roughly engraved by his forefinger.  
He remembered the silver, polished metal surrendering to his hot cosmos like clay, accepting traces of his mark in tender submission.

She too seemed like soft clay the first time he graved her.

With that bracelet everyone would have known a more deepest groove had been done, before in the flesh than in the metal.

He immersed himself in the warm water of the pool and waited for her return.

Sad destiny the destiny of a woman.

' Fortunately I' m a man...' he murmured, closing his eyes.  
Time passed away, and he wasn' t able to say how many.

Vapors rised up from the hot water, candlelights were reflecting tender shadows around him. Then, suddenly, some steps. He remained closed- eyed.

' Shaina, yuo' re here...'

' I' m not Shaina.'

Slowly, he opened his eyes to focus the girl at the opposite side of a pool.

This visit bothered him.

' You hadn' t had to come, Marin.'

' Sorry if I' m disturbing you when you' re having a so pleasant bath.'

Something was vibrating bad in her voice.  
Metallic sound, under the mask.

Marin looked at him, so well- built in his tanned body to look like a sculpture.  
She moved around the pool to reach him.

' Something has changed...' she said, carefully, ' I' m here to have an explanation.'

' No need of it.', he answered, in a strange, upset cool way.

' I guess so. What about her?'

' I have seen her face.'

Marin shut up for an instant.

' Even Seiya has seen her face. And for first.'

Aiolia felt disturbed about the remark.

' Surely he has seen her first. But I had her first. So, who' s the first, effectively?'

He saw her jolting.

' Some months ago you wouldn' t have spoken in such a way. You were nice with her, but nothing more. How about this sudden change?'

Aiolia opened his arms in a distressed gesture.

' In seeing her I' ve seen myself, what I' m missing. In seeing her not as a knight I felt moved in my deepest. What can I do?'

' So... so that' s your explanation?'

' I can' t say anything else. No explanation will be enough for you.'

' But you wanted to ask me...'

She began shouting anxiously. He stopped her.

' I thought I intended to do this. But, frankly, in ages we know, I never did that step. While I did it with her promptly. I don' t know, Marin. Even if I' m fond of you, and surely I have much more in common with you than with her, maybe I haven' t asked you to stay with me because I felt it was not right. I love you, but I missed the passion. You are like a sister to me, Marin...'

She had begun to cry loudly.

' I' m so sorry, Marin, to hurt you now.'

' But maybe if you seen my face too...'

' Don' t leave your mask, marin. Your only choice woul be try to kill me, and you know you can' t win. Don' t leave it...'

Marin left the mask from her face and he lowered his eyes.

' Look at me, Aiolia.'

' No.'

' Look, please.'

Aiolia rised his eyes reluctantly.

She was fair. Really fair. So hurt and sad.

But no emotion, no vibration, fullfilled his soul.

' I' m sorry.', he answered, lowering his gaze again.  
Water was icy- shining reflectant.

' I can' t accept this!'

' This is not my problem.'  
Now he was icely, but he had no other possibility.

Silence fell down.

Then, she turned to exit.

' She' s in love with another.', she said, intending to hurt him, ' You won' t never be happy with her.'

Her words got against a strange wall of indifference.

' I know', he answered, ' but in anyway, I own her. And for instance, it' all that I want.'

Marin began to run, escaping from those stony words, her soul broken in a thousand fragments.


	27. Chapter 27 sorceries in the past

27. Sorceries in the past.

' This is for your ahura. This is for contentment in marriage. This is for taking under control every risk of violence in a man. This is...'

Reverend Mother brought from her secret shelves strange mixtures of herbs and plants, and put them on the table.

' Potions for divination, oils for having premonitors dreams, incense for seeing the past of a man and the future, herbs for reading the thoughts, and naturally, your shells... those beautiful pink little shells... harvested at the twilight for fortune- telling... I have purified them on sacrificial fires as you requested...'

Shaina took every little bottle with respect and gratitude.

Of course she was able to handcraft the mixtures by herself, but the potions made by the High Priestess, sacred in secret soil, had a real special value for every girl.

' For your cosmos, if you suffer of brisky, sudden weakness; and for remaning pregnant, or not being...'

Reverend Mother tapped her finger on the table, concerned about what else powder she could given her beautiful pupil.

Receiving magickal supplies from every Reverend Mother' s hands was an old tradition of the Sisterhood and part of every girl' s dowry.

' Ah, girl, I' m becoming old. My mind forgets things, I want to give you another special recipe for your spell kit, but now it doesn' t surface to my memory...'

She looked at the shelves, and smiled.

' All this stuff reminds me of the days I studied Voodoo. I was young, naive, with a so few of down-to-earth flavour. As you, Shaina. Maybe for your sake you had to study Voodoo too. But this is late, now you' ve becoming a normal woman... misfortunately.'

' Yeah, misfortunately... ' Shaina breathed. ' Reverend Mother, there' s no chance to mantain my powers?'

' Ah, darlin'... I think not at all. You can be a sorceress by yourself, naturally, but keep the secret of witchcraft. It' s better you' ll come here if you need some potions or if you have to make one... some girls go searching for a cavern in woods or near the Sea for occulting their spells. Men haven' t to know... and, by the way, they are afraid by metaphysical spells. They think we can throw an evil incantation on their virility. As if we have nothing better to do, huh. How silly they are sometimes.'

' So if I go to live in the Fifth House I' ll have to renounce to my knowledge in enchantment?'

' The legend of Armida the Witch is clear. For going behind that Rinaldo in his castle she left outside the door her magickal talents. No more dreaming garden for her, no more talking birds which sing love' s time for her, no more delicious soporific atmosphere for her. That' s the price of a life with a man. You know, Shaina, men are attracted and love sorceresses like mad, more than a simple wife. A wife is boring, and not free. She thinks in the same way her husband thinks. The husband is the sum of every choice she makes, infact she wears his name... of, sorry, darlin', you have just received the chain of the torture at your arm... beautiful artwork, I must admit. But a wife doesn' t do what her man hates. A witch is beyond this. A witch is free, and all of this without being arrogant as men. She' s not ruthless, she' s subtle, feminine. She doesn' t bother about revenge or feminist attitudes. She doesn' t need to speak, to hurle, to explain, to engage battle. She goes straight on her road and that' s all. This is the main attractive behaviour for men. But when they aren' t able to dominate the indefinable ethericity of a witch nature, they become ruthless. Think to the Dark Ages of the Pyres.'

They remained in silence, only the lithe, discreet popping of fire filled the room.

' You were absolutely talented, Shaina, in doing perfumes and enchanting spells. I hope you won' t forget it. Search your own shelter where you prefer. I think there' s a little cavern near the Sea, with beautiful pearly stalagmites and a little natural pool of thermal water if I' m not remembering bad. It' s empty, you can use it when you need to have a room for your own.'

' Reverend Mother, I have a question.'

' I listen to you, speak.'

' Marin.'

Reverend Mother looked at her clamly.

' No good blood between you and her.'

' Yep.'

' The same man?'

' Natural distaste.'

' Okay. What' s the problem.'

' She' s in love with the owner of the Fifth House.'

' I know, but he hadn' t advanced any proposal in years they know each other. And that bracelet on your arm is a fact.'

Reverend Mother lift her chin to indicate the jewel on Shaina' s arm.

' I' m sensing bad as well.'

' Oh, girl. Surely Marin hasn' t the same fascinating allure as you, hasn' t the same talent, and even if I think she' s more in control of her emotions than you, I prefer you confidentially. I think you' ve born with genius and profligacy in your spirit, and I like complex women, they are more interesting. But if you think she could be a trouble, then let me give you an advice: in the Sorority you surely know the Veiled Priestess of the Webcob.'

' She never exit the Sorority.'

' Yeah. An old choice after a great pain. She' s the most talented sorceress in doin' potions. Bring your shells to her. She will compose you a compelling mixture for your allure. Then ask her to explain you how to use it. And for what purpose. Tell her your fears. She can put at your feet every men you want.'

Shaina glimpsed at the Reverend Mother.

' Every...'

' Every. Even the most wild of all. And knock down all the rivals.'

Every woman knocked down. Every. In Shaina' s mind, Saori Kido surfaced.

Then, she gazed dubiouly again.

' I know, Mother, even if she' s only seven years older than me, she' s in perennial retirement and doesn' t want to see anyone. She' s unreachable. Why would she meet me?'

Reverend Mother took a break and smelled a particularly enchanting potion.

' You don' t know, daughter?'

The fire was dying.

' I think you are the only person she would have desire to meet, Shaina. Because once she conquered the heart of the most powerful of Gold Saints, and payed the most highest price with all her tears. Once, she was Aiolos' woman.'


	28. Chapter 28 sphinx of love mysteries

_**Foreword: I must apologize with my readers because maybe I' m indulging in too much erotic descriptions. I have no excuses except that I' m writing listening to the cool and sensuos Malcolm Mc Laren ' Waltz Darlin', so this intrigues me so much I' m carried away with all his sophisticated sensuality which goes permeating my story. So, take a deep breath before reading... and remember this is not for innocent souls... see you at 29 ch. bye!** Naima_

28. Sphinx of love mysteries.

Night was turning to dawn when she returned.

He had begun to be nervous.

Maybe she had met Seiya.  
No, he would have known.

His strain of gold in her would have informed him of bronze traces.

Maybe she had decided to remain among her sisters chit- chatting of women' s things for the last times before her public submission to him.

After all, their affaire was still veiled.

But he was jealous either.

' That' s the typical behaviour of Leo...' he said by himself, ' Being possessive.'

Hours passed away and no signs of Shaina.

Then, he sensed her sweet cosmos.

He prepared himself in the inner.

' I' m here...' she said, entering the House.

' Good.'

She rested, in front of him.

Something flew in the air.

A strange light. Pulviscular.

Maybe a glow- worm.

But it wasn't season for glow- worms.

' What the fuck of different have you got in yourself this night, girl?' he asked, aggressively attracted by an intense sense which warmed his skin in an inusual way.

Something glittering on her lips. Something wet on her skin.  
It seemed she had danced all night.  
In a brief flash, he closed his eyes and saw a group of half- naked women waltzing in front of the Sea. She was the most of all in abandon.

' So...?' he insisted, intensely, ' Where have you been till now, waltz- darlin'?'

' And you?' she asked, promptly vague, ' Have you got nothing to tell me?'

' What the hell have I to tell you?'

' I don' t know...'

Shaina' s behaviour had something entangling in it. Maybe it was for the euphoria brought by dances.  
A lot of women changed after having danced.

She turned around the bed, then she stretched herself on him.  
Her perfume. Her neck. The soft flesh of her breasts. Her eyes were fluttering in a distant world. An icon. A sphinx. He sensed his power in danger again.

' Speak clear.'

Something rough in his tone.  
Her hand was gently going down, but her eyes were far from him, lost in that mysterious world of secret rites.  
When she caressed his furious manliness, he harsly run to grab her buttocks to press her against his hard on.  
He went in searching of her lips.  
He sensed an enigmatic smile when he was at the point to open her mouth with his tongue.

' What did she wanted from you, today?'

He rested, breathing calmly. His excitement grew more and more if possible.

' Someone among Gold Saints' he answered, proudly, ' some time ago thought your beloved Sorority had to be dismantled, because of the strange practices you women do in the secret. Divination, potions... waltzing orgies.'

She lifted her pulviscular gaze.

' Curiosity killed the cat, don' t you Gold Saints know? Especially you, as a feline...'

' Shut up, Priestess. I was in disagree with this fundamentalist vision. But now I' m changing my mind. Now I' m beginning to think that knight was right.'

' Don' t say me, Death Mask is always so unfair. Si c' est son style, je préfère n' avoir pas aucun discours avec lui.'

' You don' t need to have a chat with any other men. Neither for confronting opinions. And those strange ritualistic encounters must stop.'

' You go on with me listing continuous conditions.'

' It' s time to put an end to all of this.'

' What a chauvinist.'

' Don' t tell me you didn' t know.'

' Yes, Sir.'

She was still caressing, playing with his most evident attribute of dominion on her with tender sensuality.  
And he had the irritating sensation she was fooling him with her dual docility.

Bitchy ambiguous arts, he thought, but he was, against his wisdom, growing harder in her hands, quite in a painful way.

' Please, don' t be so restrained...' she said, in her innocent, bitchy way, now caressing more intensely, ' You can wheeze, while you tell me what Marin wanted from you.'

Aiolia felt an enraged smile growing on his lips.  
Fucking whore. She was sensing lust in his cosmos, and he didn' t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing him loosing his total control only because she was so pleasantly tantalizing in touching him.  
In her mind, he found fluttering a strange image, a woman all dressed in blue but with a veil which covered her face. The imagine dispelled in a watery fogg.  
Inusual thought.  
Dreadful girl.

' I don' t like Divas' poses. So don' t be so confidentially superior. And squeeze it a little bit.', he said, trying to shock her security.

She abandoned herself on his lips. He had this autumn-like warm, woody and earthy scent. A strong opulence overwhelmed her.  
Again that torpid sensation of not knowing what she felt for him. Lust? Love? Jealousy? Marin had been there in the afternoon, ' That bitch', she thought with a touch of bitterness. And him? What had he done? Did he had sex with her...? Or... worst of all... Did he make love on her...?

But more important... what did he make with herself, and what with Marin?

Did he make love with Marin, and sex with her...?

Shaina felt humiliated.

' Tell me about her. She wanted to be at my place, I suppose... at my place here. In this bed.'

' Maybe.', he said, firmly tightening her in his arms.

She exitated. Then, curiosity killed the cat in herself.

' Have you been unfaithful to me with her?'

He smelled her insecurity on her lips, finally. He was amused. He didn' t intend to satisfy her questions. He loved seeing her jealousy. Perhaps, Marin would have been wrong. Perhaps, she wasn' t so much in love with another. Perhaps, they could have a chance to be happily involved in a passionate link.

' Maybe...' he murmured sensually, with a vague hint of sufficient idleness.

' ... Son of a bitch...'

' Wack me off.', he said, vulgarly, holding her more tight to him.  
His words were rough, but his manners wanted to reassure her.  
She was shaking.  
In that moment he knew he would be there for her for every evenience.

' Did you give her a fuck?'

She began trembling more violently. Her voice was dying in a whisper full of tears. He remained silent.  
Her hands were plenty of his clammy, delightful pleasure.  
The painful pleasure, he thought, of not having you completely.

' Did you give her...'

He stopped her rising tears grabbing her hair with struggling passion.

She loved him, she fooled him, she escaped from him, she slapped him, she kissed him... too much, he concluded, too much.

' I' ll give you a fuck. Wack me off...' He kissed her, murmuring, ' With your mouth...'


	29. Chapter 29 your brother' s secret

29. Your brother' s secret.

Cold sweat on his forehead.

Strange images in his dreams.

Aiolia felt imperceptibly Shaina' tender arms substaining him on her bosom.

She was awaken for him, for giving surveillance on his sleep.

The Veiled Woman. The Woman in Blue.

And, suddenly, he saw himself wearing Leo' s cloth, in an attitude of fighting.

Something changed... he wasn' t himself. He was his brother, wearing Sagitter' s cloth, in an attitude of fighting.

' Yes', said the Veiled Woman, ' they ressemble each other like twins. The same strenght, the same attitude, the same positions, the same movements, the same eyes. Now, I can see your face. The face of my Aiolos. Yes, you' re like him.'

The Veiled Woman was talking to him, but with Shaina' s voice.

It wasn' t possible, it was nightmarish.

The, imagines went fast, so fast to become wild.

A young beautiful blond girl, maybe fourteen, with eyes like violet december' s nights, naked in a river.  
His brother, astonished in seeing all this beauty rising suddenly from the water after an offer to the river.  
Her face without mask. Her body without dresses.  
His eyes unable to turn off her. His body rigid as a stone.  
Her broken honour.  
His fallen heart.  
Their untold secret.

Then, images moved.

His brother, wild as him, running behind that girl on a hill in a night without moon.  
His brother, naked as him, fucking as mad that girl on the stairs of the Ninth House, against her will.  
His brother, naked as him, fucking as mad that girl on a bed in the Ninth House, as in her will.  
His brother, a girl' s name on a roughly engraved gold pendant at his neck.  
His brother, with the sacred child in his arms, escaping away.  
His brother, wounded to death, on his side, tighting the pendant in his hand, calling softly a name Aiolia didn' t understand, calling it in repetition, till the breath went away from him.

A girl, in an enormous House, crying and hurling, tears and shivers in her, and an imponent mature woman keeping her by her frail shoulders, while other masked girls went around her, covered her, embraced her.

A woman, wearing luctuous clothes, becoming the Veiled Woman.

A girl with sphinx eyes, which goes to the retire of the Veiled Woman who lives in a room protected by a giant Webcob.

Their words, Aiolia could barely understand. Their long conversation. A gift form the Widow of the Webcob, for the girl who had eyes like a sphinx.

He didn't see the gift.

' Live for me...'

Aiolia slowly opened his eyes.

' My brother had a woman... nobody knew... neither me...'

Shaina held him tightly, kissing his hair.

' She is the most broken- hearted creature I' ve ever seen. She was the most fragrant spirit in the world. Passion was her blood. She has no more life in her eyes. Make me a promise... don' t let me becoming like her.'

He took her in his arms, and for a moment he saw himself lied down, murmuring ossessively her name before dying.

He rested.

Then, he had the desire to listen to that story.

' Tell me what you know about them.'


	30. Chapter 30 my brother' s fault

30. my brother' s fault.

' They never did publically admission... she was the Virgin of the Moon, the girl who had to remain untouched for listening the voice of Artemis, the Goddess she was sacred for. Artemis' reincarnation on Earth. An ethereal creature infused with the spirit of the Goddess. When he possessed her, nobody knew she wasn' t pure anymore. The Reverend Mother knew only when he died. She was sent away in a secret part of the Sorority territory to live protected by the Webcob for having missed her promise to Artemis.'

' How do you know her?'

' Reverend Mother told me. She encouraged me to go and visit her for having her benedictions. Reverend Mother said... ' You' re the only one she will accept to see, because you bring in you particles of Sagitter' s brother' s cosmos... and this is her last occasion to feel through you the Aiolos' distant soul.' Your blood in me gave me the chance to meet her.'

' So that' s...'

' She was upset. She looked through me... and she found your imagine in my eyes... she said... ' He' s so looking- like to his brother...'. Then, she told me about all the love. About the child she desired from him. About the prohibition and the guilt in which they lived. She said your brother knew exactly was she was instructed for, but passion was too high, especially because was a frustrated passion. He was full of it. In some way, she still loves and she still hates him... he has brought disgrace in her life. He has brought love in her life. Pleasure. Promises. Dreams. And then, he has brought death in her life, and eternal melancholy she isn' t able to dismiss. Once a year she left her retirement to go in the place where he died and bring flowers. She remembers the last time she saw him, an obscure sensation over their happiness. She became untouchable after the scandal. She was considered impure, you know.'

' So, my bros had a double fault... he ruined the Sacred Goddess Artemis... and then he took the Sacred Child Athena... this is too much for me...'

' The Widow said a different thing. She said your brother had too much passion and rightness in him. It was his karma. She said a strange thing... ' People think he ruined a Goddess and kidnapped another Goddess. I say, he loved a Goddess with all his soul and saved another with all his life.' She said your brother is the only one who understood the Truth, and it was the main reason she didn' t bring him in front of the High Priest after he messed up on her... what you saw, that night on his House stairs. He knew at every new moon she went to the river for making her offers. Then he waited for her. He took her, she escaped, he took her another time, brought her to the Sacred Hill, she escaped again, he ran back her, then finally he reached her, and in front of his House, in a totally obscured night...'

' ... He raped her. Go on.'

' But she said she felt his love, and his desperation, through his cosmos. She said he was the most lonely man in the world. An orphan of the world. He, with all his puissance, only wanted to find a Goddess for himself, to have a Goddess to serve, to love, to own. He was misunderstood by all. In that moment, she had compassion for him, because she couldn' t have love. Then, when she saw his true devotion, she loved him in a complete way, and kept the secret to avoid him to be put to death. Things came to light after his death, when it was discovered she wasn' t pure anymore, but Reverend Mother kept the whole thing among the Sisterhood walls. She simply said to the High Priest the spirit of Artemis had left the sacred Virgin, maybe because the missing of Athena, and that the two Goddesses weren' t anymore in flesh and bones people. In fact, the Widow confirmed the cosmos of Artemis isn' t in her anymore, let her when Aiolos died and the Sacred Child disappeared. Reverend Mother didn' t speak to the High Priest about the relationship between the Virgin and the Sagitter' s Saint. Reverend Mother never believed the Widow version about the complete innocence of Aiolos. In her opinion, he had ruined the Moon' s Virgin, so even if he had maybe saved Athena, however he was and remains guilty.'

' Of course she felt so...'

Aiolia closed his eyes. Shaina kept the silence.  
After a while, he spoke.

' I think I' m having a nervous breakdown. What did she say? My brother wanted... a Goddess for himself?'

' Yes.'

He let go a long whisper.

' My brother' s fault is every men' s fault. Who' s the man who doesn' t want this?'


	31. Chapter 31 cave of secrets

31. Cave of secrets.

Only the discreet splash of the thermal water on her skin. Only a faint echo in the little cave near the Sea, where stalagmites protected her privacy. It wasn' t difficult to find it.  
Shaina looked at the refugee Reverend Mother had counseled her.  
And looked especially at the refined hand glass cruet.  
10 ml of the finest magickal apothecary.  
10 ml of the most dreamed happiness in scented form of precious oil.

' Liquid Amber, Lotus, Narcissus, Dragon' s Blood, Calamus, Aloeswood, Absinthe, Myrrh and Frankincense pestled with Moon- stone, amethyst, succinum and rose- quartz fragments... this oil derives its deep, alchemical properties from subtle hints of sacred oils resulting in a sultry, enticing fragrance which has been prayed on for an entire Moon cycle, from new to full. Only some drops of this and you' ll link the man you love at yourself forever. Put it in the water when you have a bath. Do it in a sacred place. Light a candle and pray on it the Goddess Artemis to receive her beauty and charme. Tell her the name of the man you want. If the Goddess listen to you, she will give you her benedictions and particles of her cosmos. No rivals anymore.'

Shaina felt guilty.  
She had lied to everyone.

She had lied to Reverend Mother, about her jealousy on Aiolia.  
She had lied to the Widow about her fear of Marin.

She had lied to everyone, to have the mystical Elisir of the Moon.

She had lied to have a chance against Saori.  
She had lied to have Seiya.

' I know you' re in Greece now...' she murmured, frantically, tighting herself in her own arms, covering her marvellous nudity, ' I feel the tenderness of the stars...'

Then, suddenly, she was overwhelmed by the vigourous heat of the sunshine.

' Who' s the man who doesn' t want a Goddess?'

Leo' s tired voice. Leo' s dreaming voice. Her heart missed a beat.

' I' m an unfaithful woman...' she said, feeling cold.

She wanted take the bottle, but she felt the weight of two cosmos on her, one pushing her at left, the other at right.

Then, her hand became heavy.

' I' m not able to elect... I must see Seiya... and understand, in looking in his eyes... if my feelings are not changed...'

Water was pleasantly warm, like the bodies of the two men of her life.  
Tears was painfully bright, like the cosmos of the two men of her life.


	32. Chapter 32 being promised, being unfaith

32. Being promised, being unfaithful.

Grand Temple's marbles solemnly echoed his steps.  
Aiolia didn' t like to have audiences with the High Priest, but he had to.

He couldn' t keep the secret about Shaina too longer.

And it was better to speak fastly, before Seiya.

He hadn' t appreciate Marin' s visit. In some way, he felt this brought disgrace to him.

Her words, like a sinister premonition.

' You' ll never be happy with her.'

His acts, like he had choosen the wrong woman.

' She couldn' t love you.'

He wanted to have the presentation to the Temple as soon as possible.  
So every risk would have been trashed away.  
So Shaina would have been linked indissolubly.

While walking, he noticed a tall, average woman coming forward.  
Two masked priestesses were at her sides.  
One of the priestesses was Marin.

She had a jolt in seeing him, but he remained cooly in control.

He respectfully bowed.

' Reverend Mother...' he said, hoping she stopped for having a talk.  
It was like an official proposal made to a putative mother.

She infact stopped her walk, and turned her eyes on him.

' Ah.' she said, curt, ' Leo' s Gold Saint. Good afternoon.'

He looked at her. He surpassed her head in height.  
He felt a strange feeling of disappointment in her.

' I' m here to talk with the High Priest about the publical admission which concerns Shaina...'

Marin trembled, and he felt pity for her, but couldn' t manage the thing. It was simply a misfortune he had met the Reverend Mother at her presence.

' Yes, we know.', the Hig Priestess breathed, not too much enthusiast, looking up and down at him, ' I must say at least she has to be careful not to be accused to be bigamous.'

Aiolia felt a sudden hatred.

' Bigamous...? What d' you mean, if it' s lecit to ask you, Reverend Mother?'

She gazed at him coolly,

' Oh, don' t be in alert, boy. I' m simply saying with this physical presence you are made of, it' s like she' s marrying two men. Too much muscles, y' know.'

She said the word ' marrying' with evident effort.  
Aiolia had the strange sensation she was joking him, or implying he was not very clever.

'It' s a compliment, of course', she added seraphically, then she slipped away, silently and indifferent.

Aiolia remained jaded, but said nothing.

' I think she' s right, you know, and not only in that meaning...' said lightly Marin' s voice before leaving him, ' I' ve seen her this morning with Seiya near the beach.'

He felt his pride enraging.  
He felt his heart cracking.

He left the Temple, without seeing the High Priest.


	33. Chapter 33 exile

33. Exile.

What doin'?

Goin' to the beach?

Fighting?

Passing over?

Showing to them, to himself, to be a little, jealous man, a greedy man?

Loosing his honour?

His steps were less firmly, he missed the ground under.

Rage seemed to overwhelm him in a great stream of puissance, but in the lower inner a strange, sad feelings of loneliness and abandon entered in minor tone, expanding, and taking, like poisonous absinthe, possess of his soul.

Maybe she was saying the other she was promised, and unable to see him again.

Maybe she would have returned.

Maybe she wasn' t cheating on him.

Maybe she would have done the right choise.

Women are strange, unpredictable.

You have faith in them, and they betray you. Or indeed, you don' t have any faith, and they are good.

Ah, those thooughts which bring a man straight in the graveyard.

What to do?

To let her go away?

Be manly, and let her going away, if this was her true desire?

Be magnificent, and accepting to have been beaten by a rival without any fight?

Seiya, definetely, was also a friend.

To win a rival in a war, to be beaten in love by a friend.

Unluck in love, luck in life.

Not so much comfort, he thought, rejecting a rising tear.

His head was weavy, charged with concerns.

It wasn' t his way not to talk about problems, if there were.

It wasn' t his way not to be calm, and patient, in strenghtness.

Maybe a firmly decision would have stopped all this.

Maybe a special bliss... a bliss she couldn' t have answered ' no'.

Before exiting the Temple, he went straight to the Sanctuary' s apothecarist to buy the sacred oil.

To have the bless of the High Priest on the mixture for the sponsals.


	34. Chapter 34 from the universe

34. From the Universe.

His presence was warm, his brown hair moved by the breeze coming from the sea were glittering, his eyes with a velvet sadness, so full of distant concern, were stunning.

When he approached her, she immediately knew why she was so in love with him.

Seiya shared her same sadness. Her same pain.

Among them, it was the Age of Loneliness.

He was sweet in a strange way, and untouchable, he was the Saint with the special mystique, the Saint chosen by Athena.

And, in some way, something boyish, and something girlish, was strangely mixed in his soul.

Sun was dying in a gold cascade, and he was encountered her on the beach, step by step, with a new attitude, an indefinable one.

She wondered what was the change in him, why his cosmos was different, why, why, why...

More grown, or simply more in line with the Absolute.

The Infinity of the Stars.

When he was at very few steps from her, he stopped.

She looked at him, into him.

Only few yards.

His eyes remained on her to contemplate so long her integrity, her beauty, her essence, with the deep of the Universe.

She wasn' t able to talk.

So near. So far.

She rested, under his gaze, and in a plane manner something rose in her.

He came from a real distant part of the Universe, a place of nowhere in time, mysterious regions no man could describe, neither a great wise, and he was returning after years and years, sun was died a thousand times, earth was revolutioned her way thousand times, cities and civilizations were fallen apart thousand times.

She trembled.

In that moment a flash erupted as a thunder in her heart, and she knew for sure she had known him thousand and thousand times.

He was the sad, beloved husband of past lives.

The most dreamt, the most desired.

Her twin' soul.

She fell down, and cried for the commotion to have him back again.


	35. Chapter 35 here lie the stars

35. Here Lie the Stars.

His hand was warm, so his skin.

That moment on the beach was a moment shared among the stars.

He embraced her, and Shaina felt the tears rolling down.

' It seems my destiny is makin' you suffer and givin' you troubles...'

His voice was sweet, so sweet she felt honey in it flowing as a bliss.

She was sadly happy

' Oh Seiya, I only know I' ve waited for you since I came back from New Luxor... but I don' t know if I could deserve your love... only to stay at your side, was my request.'

He breathed in her perfumed hair. Soft breeze from the sea.

' I thought you were just promised...'

She felt the outrageous risk.

' You know...'

His baby- brown eyes, so deep and tender.

' Surely. Or am I not able to read your cosmos anymore? Why do you think I' ve come?'

She felt ashamed, and tighted her eyes strictly.

' It' no t as you guess... yes I' m promised but...'

' Have we to escape? I think there' s someone who will claim his right.'

' I' ll talk to him.'

' After all?'

Shaina looked into his glassy, brighting gaze. She wasn' t pure anymore. And maybe he was involved with someone else. And then, she asked him the truth.

' Do you love me, Seiya? Or do you love Saori?'

Seiya contemplated her with a strange, sad distance. Then, he talked slowly.

' Oh, Shaina. I have so much passion for you. So strong desire. And so unability to defend you. I wasn' t aware of this. Then, I saw how week I was when you got hurt by him, and then restored by him. And I felt I was only a boy, not a man.'

Silence fell down.

' You know, Saori is a more simple woman. Rich, comfortable, and without your complex, classy frailty. And no Gold Saint claims her.'

Shaina remained concerned.

' You mean you prefer her?'

' No. I mean you are surely the true love of my life. But I' m wondering if I' m able to take the responsability of you. Sincerely, I want, and don' t want. I' m afraid to touch you, and to hurt you... that' s strange...'

He smiled upset, designing some circles on the sand with a finger.

' That' s strange, what' s going on. You are in my mind as a dream... as a fairy creature, nor a knight... ad I don' t want to destroy the dream... the last dream of my life... maybe the only one, after Patricia went away from me.'

He embraced her. She was crying loud. He kissed her, and felt a tear falling on her hair as a morning raindrop. 


	36. Chapter 36 age of loneliness

**_I' m a bit __distressed, so forgive me if I' m not too accurate... I only wanted to update soon because I don' t know when I' ll update the next time... bye!_**

36. Age of Loneliness.

The Fifth House was dark and cold.

The Sun couldn' t warm it.

Looking towards Sirio, shining star high in sky, Aiolia breathed.

' So you have encountered him and remembered the real past...'

His eyes fell down, for the first time.

' Only of this... I was afraid only of this... so the Lion had lost his crown... and without any battle...' he murmured, flattered.

Loneliness approached him, as it happened when Aiolos died. When his- their- parents died. When every dream he had ever had died.

'So this too... so this... was worth an illusion? Every night spent together, was only an illusion?'

An importune tear appeared, shiner than Sirio which stared silent and indifferent in the twilight.

' I can' t be happy with you, but neither you can be happy with him...'

He spoke loud voice to himself, to convince his broken ego about that impossible sodalice.

And a doubt arose cruelty.

And if they would have been happy together?

Rage mixed to jealousy took the most noble part of his soul.

' I can' t let things go fucking in this way... I must fight...'

' Fight what...?'

A gentle step behind him. Not Shaina' s.

' Marin.', he said, ' Why have you come here?'

' Because I know. I know.'

' Don' t guess.'

' No?'

She approached him, who was still giving her his back. She embraced his waist, and posed her head on his shoulder.

' For all the long years of your loneliness I' ve been here to rescue you from your pain. Why haven' t you got faith in me anymore? What have I done to deserve this?'

Aiolia closed his eyes.

' Nothing. Nothing, you are a good friend. I' m so sorry not to have talked clearly to you.'

' We are in time.'

' No, I don' t think.'

He trembled, and this was unusual.

Was it pain? Was it rage?

' You know she will leave with Seiya. Maybe tomorrow, with the first plane for New Luxor. He has come to rescue her.'

' No.'

Aiolia turned, his green eyes in fire.

' I won' t permit this.'

' They' ll quit. She will quit you. I warn you... she can' t make you happy.'

He looked at Marin, her calm voice. Slowly, she took off her mask.

He silently laughed in his throat.

' That' s nonsense. I have just seen her and she has her promise done in front of me.'

' How naif. I' ll be sure she will forget the promise when she is on the plane.'

' Marin, go home.'

' I wanna stay.'

He looked at the sky.

' Even if she quit...' he began, a certain sadness in his tone, ' I' ll go and rescue her. At every cost, I' ll force her to follow me.'

' But why...? Why you' ve got such obsession in a woman who doesn' t want you? Why?'

The Lion pondered the question, then a flow of rememberings overwhelmed him. When she kissed him. When he felt himself weak as a kitten in her arms. Her glittering cat' s eyes.

' Because she owns my passion... all, entirely... my blood... sings only when I see her...'

Silence grows, while Marin began to cry.


	37. Chapter 37 back to you

37. Back to you.

And then, she returned.

The Fifth House echoed her steps, her tired steps.

The Fifth House was large, and secure, with its strong architectures, and columns, and she felt frail, in the immensity of that structure.

She looked above her, in the darkness of the highness.

' You have come back to broke your engagement?'

Shaina tighted her eyes.

His mighty voice, coming from the deep of the night, echoing and jumping through the columns.  
His manly voice, with the power to make her knees trembling, and to warm her at the point to feel that clammy sensation between her legs.

She went ahead.

' You have found him, ah, your great love.'

Sarcasm in his wealthy cosmos.  
She walked through.

' Now you have to beg on your knees for freedom.'

His rage. His rage, in a fiery soul.

Shadows were enlightened by the Moon.

He was waiting, on the large bed.

' I know you were coming.'

Shaina breathened.

' Are there many things a Gold Saint doesn' t know?'

He waited before answering.

' No, there aren't.'

Shaina rested.

' Come to me, girl.'

Aiolia was strangely quiet.

Sure enough of his power over her, she thought.

One step, two steps.

Three, and she was in front of him.

In the darkness of the silent night, his gaze was green and catty.

' Look, Shaina.', he began, ' I can forgive. I can forget, also. I don' t want to receive any explanation. I will be indulgent as a good master must be. Leave him to his life. Forget him before the disgrace falls over him.'

' Is it a suggestion or a threaten?'

' I don' t make threatens. Only weak men make threatens.'

Slowly, Shaina went down on the bed.

' I must admit...' she began, while he touched her hair, ' I' m overwhelmed by you. It' s a total strange feeling, so different from what I can perceive next to Seiya. With him, I know I have a soulmate. With you... I don' t know what I have. It' s not so clear. Have I got a master? Have I got a lover? What have I got?'

Aiolia kept the silence for a moment.

' I guess you have all of the things you have mention. And other things you don' t know.'

Her hand reached his chest.

' I' m so confused.'

' Leave him to his life and respect the terms we have.'

' Is it an order?'

Aiolia waited, then went down on her lips.

' Yes.'

And she felt only the embrace of the power as an iron chain on herself. 


End file.
